Early voting was down to its final stretch in parts of Florida’s Bay Area, with some counties ending it Saturday, Oct. 31, and others keeping the polls open through Sunday, Nov. 1 before the Nov. 3 general election.
That split matters now because voters do not all have the same deadline, and the window to vote early is closing fast. Registered voters can cast ballots at any designated early voting location within their county, but once Election Day arrives they must use their assigned polling location. Anyone in line by 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 3, will still be allowed to vote when polls open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. local time.
Florida voters who plan to cast a ballot in person must bring a current and valid photo ID that includes a signature. For people voting by mail, the deadline is even tighter: completed ballots must reach the voter’s county Supervisor of Elections office by 7 p.m. on Election Day. A postmark will not count, and ballots still sitting at home should not be put in the mail at this point.
There is still more than one way to finish voting before the deadline, but the rules now separate sharply by method and by day. Completed vote-by-mail ballots can still be returned directly to a county elections office or dropped into a designated secure ballot drop box at an early voting location during voting hours, but they cannot be handed in at a regular Election Day polling place. That leaves early voters with one last choice: vote before their county’s early-voting cutoff, or wait and go to the assigned precinct on Nov. 3.
The county-by-county schedule is what makes the final stretch so easy to miss. One voter may still have Sunday, Nov. 1, while a neighbor across a county line has already lost the option to vote early. For anyone tracking the Florida gubernatorial race, the deadline is not a general warning but a local one, and the next fixed point on the calendar is Election Day itself.
