Chapter 101 — Chapter 101

The election board of each precinct shall cause the voting devices to be put in order, set, adjusted, and made ready for voting when delivered to the polling places. Before the opening of the polls, the election board shall compare the ballots or the ballot information used in th…

(1) The supervisor of elections shall provide instruction at each polling place regarding the manner of voting with the system. In instructing voters, no precinct official may favor any political party, candidate, or issue. Such instruction shall show the arrangement of candidate…

(1) All electronic or electromechanical voting systems shall be thoroughly tested at the conclusion of maintenance and programming. Tests shall be sufficient to determine that the voting system is properly programmed, the election is correctly defined on the voting system, and al…

A member of the election board or, for purposes of early voting pursuant to s. 101.657, a representative of the supervisor of elections shall occasionally examine the face of the voting device and the ballot information to determine that the device and the ballot information have…

(1) As soon as the polls are closed, the election board shall secure the voting devices against further voting. The election board shall thereafter, in the presence of members of the public desiring to witness the proceedings, verify the number of voted ballots, unused ballots, p…

(1) The official ballots and ballot cards received from election boards and removed from vote-by-mail ballot mailing envelopes and voter certificates on such mailing envelopes shall be open for public inspection or examination while in the custody of the supervisor of elections o…

(1) The Department of State may, at any time it deems fit; upon the petition of 5 percent of the registered electors; or upon the petition of any candidate, county executive committee chair, state committeeman or committeewoman, or state executive committee chair, appoint one or …

(1) Immediately following the certification of each election, the county canvassing board or the local board responsible for certifying the election shall conduct a manual audit or an automated, independent audit of the voting systems used in randomly selected precincts.(2)(a) A …

Effective upon this act becoming a law, the Department of State shall adopt rules to implement the provisions of s. 101.591, as amended by s. 8, chapter 2007-30, Laws of Florida, which prescribe detailed audit procedures for each voting system, which shall be uniform to the exten…

(1) No later than December 15 of each general election year, the supervisor of elections in each county shall report to the Department of State the total number of overvotes and undervotes in the “President and Vice President” or “Governor and Lieutenant Governor” race that appea…

Sections 101.6101-101.6107 may be cited as the “Mail Ballot Election Act.”

(1)(a) An election may be conducted by mail ballot if:1. The election is a referendum election at which all or a portion of the qualified electors of one of the following subdivisions of government are the only electors eligible to vote:a. Counties;b. Cities;c. School districts c…

(1) Except as otherwise provided in subsection (7), the supervisor of elections shall mail all official ballots with a secrecy envelope, a return mailing envelope, and instructions sufficient to describe the voting process to each elector entitled to vote in the election within t…

If any elector present for the canvass of votes believes that any ballot is illegal due to any defect apparent on the voter’s certificate, the elector may, at any time before the ballot is removed from the envelope, file with the canvassing board a protest against the canvass of …

The provisions of the election code relating to vote-by-mail voting and vote-by-mail ballots shall apply to elections under ss. 101.6101-101.6107 only insofar as they do not conflict with the provisions of ss. 101.6101-101.6107.

All laws that are applicable to general elections are applicable to mail ballot elections to the extent applicable.

The Department of State shall adopt rules governing the procedures and forms necessary to implement ss. 101.6101-101.6107.

(1) REQUEST.—(a) The supervisor shall accept a request for a vote-by-mail ballot only from a voter or, if directly instructed by the voter, a member of the voter’s immediate family or the voter’s legal guardian. A request may be made in person, in writing, by telephone, or throug…

(1)(a) The supervisor shall enclose with each vote-by-mail ballot two envelopes: a secrecy envelope, into which the absent elector shall enclose his or her marked ballot; and a mailing envelope, into which the absent elector shall then place the secrecy envelope, which shall be a…

The supervisor shall enclose with each vote-by-mail ballot separate printed instructions in substantially the following form; however, where the instructions appear in capitalized text, the text of the printed instructions must be in bold font:READ THESE INSTRUCTIONS CAREFULLYBEF…

(1) The supervisor of elections of a county shall provide supervised voting for absent electors residing in any assisted living facility, as defined in s. 429.02, or nursing home facility, as defined in s. 400.021, within that county at the request of any administrator of such a …

(1)(a) As a convenience to the voter, the supervisor of elections shall allow an elector to vote early in the main or branch office of the supervisor. The supervisor shall mark, code, indicate on, or otherwise track the voter’s precinct for each early voted ballot. In order for a…

All electors must personally mark or designate their choices on the vote-by-mail ballot, except:(1) Electors who require assistance to vote because of blindness, disability, or inability to read or write, who may have some person of the elector’s choice, other than the elector’s …

It is the intent of the Legislature that voting by vote-by-mail ballot be by methods that are fully accessible to all voters, including voters having a disability. The Department of State shall work with the supervisors of elections and the disability community to develop and imp…

An elector registered in this state who moves his or her permanent residence to another state after the registration books in that state have closed is permitted to vote by mail in the county of his or her former residence for the offices of President and Vice President of the Un…

For the purposes of this code, oaths may be administered and attested by any commissioned officer in the active service of the Armed Forces, any member of the Merchant Marine of the United States designated for this purpose by the Secretary of Commerce, any civilian official empo…

(1)(a) The supervisor of elections shall safely keep in his or her office any envelopes received containing marked ballots of absent electors, and he or she shall, before the canvassing of the election returns, deliver the envelopes to the county canvassing board along with his o…

(1)(a) The supervisor of the county where the absent elector resides shall receive the voted ballot, at which time the supervisor shall compare the signature of the elector on the voter’s certificate with the signature of the elector in the registration books or the precinct regi…

(1) The provisions of this code shall not be construed to prohibit any elector from voting in person at the elector’s precinct on the day of an election or at an early voting site, notwithstanding that the elector has requested a vote-by-mail ballot for that election. An elector …

(1) The provisions of this section apply to voters who are subject to the provisions of s. 97.0535 and who have not provided the identification or certification required by s. 97.0535 by the time the vote-by-mail ballot is mailed.(2) The supervisor shall enclose with each vote-by…

(1) This section applies to voters who are subject to s. 97.0535 and who have not provided the identification or information required by s. 97.0535 by the time the vote-by-mail ballot is mailed.(2) A voter covered by this section must be provided with printed instructions with hi…

(1) The supervisor of the county where the voter resides shall receive the voted special vote-by-mail ballot, at which time the mailing envelope must be opened to determine if the voter has enclosed the identification required or has indicated on the Voter’s Certificate that he o…

(1) Upon receipt of a federal postcard application for a vote-by-mail ballot executed by a person whose registration is in order or whose application is sufficient to register or update the registration of that person, the supervisor shall send the ballot in accordance with s. 10…

(1) An overseas voter may request, not earlier than 180 days before a general election, a state write-in vote-by-mail ballot from the supervisor of elections in the county of registration. In order to receive a state write-in ballot, the voter shall state that due to military or …

(1) If an absent uniformed services voter’s or an overseas voter’s request for an official vote-by-mail ballot pursuant to s. 101.62 includes an e-mail address, the supervisor of elections shall:(a) Record the voter’s e-mail address in the vote-by-mail ballot record;(b) Confirm b…

The Department of State shall determine whether secure electronic means can be established for receiving ballots from overseas voters. If such security can be established, the department shall adopt rules to authorize a supervisor of elections to accept from an overseas voter a r…

If a national or local emergency or other situation arises which makes substantial compliance with the provisions of state or federal law relating to the methods of voting for overseas voters impossible or unreasonable, such as an armed conflict involving United States Armed Forc…

(1) There shall be in each precinct in each county one polling place which shall be accessible to the public on election day and is managed by a board of inspectors and clerk of election. Only one elector shall be allowed to enter any voting booth at a time; no one except inspect…

(1) All polling places must be accessible and usable by people with disabilities, as provided in this section.(2) Only those polling places complying with the Florida Americans With Disabilities Accessibility Implementation Act, ss. 553.501-553.513, for all portions of the pollin…

Sections 101.731-101.74 may be cited as the “Elections Emergency Act.”

As used in ss. 101.731-101.74:(1) “Department” means the Department of State.(2) “Division” means the Division of Elections of the Department of State.(3) “Emergency” means any occurrence, or threat thereof, whether accidental, natural, or caused by human beings, in war or in pea…

Because of the existing and continuing possibility of an emergency or common disaster occurring before or during a regularly scheduled or special election, and in order to ensure maximum citizen participation in the electoral process and provide a safe and orderly procedure for p…

In case of an emergency existing in any precinct at the time of the holding of any election, the supervisor of elections may establish, at any safe and convenient point outside such precinct, an additional polling place for the electors of that precinct, in which place the qualif…

(1) In any municipality, when the date of the municipal election falls on the same date as any statewide or county election and the voting devices of the voting system used in the county are not available for both elections, the municipality may provide that the municipal electio…