A new Florida Department of State report stops short of calling on state lawmakers to require the placement of personal identifying information, such as driver's license numbers, on return envelopes of vote-by-mail ballots to enhance voting integrity.
The Feb. 1 report to the Florida Legislature, which was mandated by a new state law, includes an analysis by a workgroup of the Florida Supervisors of Elections (FSE) cautioning that new vote-by-mail rules such as envelope identifiers could cause significant logistical and security problems for county elections officials. At a minimum, the FSE analysis says, the Legislature should not adopt such policies until after the 2024 election cycle.
The Department of State’s report acknowledges the supervisors’ concerns about labor costs and other issues associated with the envelope identifiers, and it did not include such a requirement in its recommendations.
“The department recommends building on the election integrity measures adopted recently to enhance the security of the vote-by-mail process,” the report states. “The department proposes legislation to further those objectives by focusing primarily on the vote-by-mail ballot request process.”
The recommendations include creating a uniform statewide application to request a vote-by-mail ballot and no longer allowing telephone requests for mail-in ballots. The report was compiled in response to provisions in a 2022 voting integrity law passed by the Legislature.
A spokesman for the Leon County Supervisor of Elections, Mark Earley, who also serves as FSE president, said the next step is for state lawmakers to decide what further safeguards are needed in the vote-by-mail process.
“The Department (of State) carefully considered the unanimous opinion of supervisors of elections that putting personally identifying information on the return envelope would cause very serious complications, and the department’s report acknowledges that, and it is not part of their recommendations,” Alex Mosca told the Florida Record.
Leon County elections officials are continuing to review the Department of State’s report, and Earley will be engaged in future legislative discussions on the mail-in voting issues, Mosca said.
“The most important provision was that the department acknowledged the very serious concerns with regard to putting personal identifiers on that return envelope and the very serious logistical problems it would cause and complications for Florida voters,” he said.
Critics of placing personal identifiers on return mail-in ballot envelopes say such a move would raise costs for election offices and disenfranchise voters.