To vote by mail in Miami’s special election, you’ll have to request yours. Here’s how

Voters in most of Miami’s coastal neighborhoods will elect a new City Hall representative in a special election Feb. 27 — but people who typically vote by mail should not expect to automatically get a ballot sent to them.

Thirteen candidates are vying to fill the District 2 seat on the Miami City Commission, a position left vacant after Ken Russell resigned following a failed bid for Congress. After a lengthy debate, the four remaining commissioners agreed to hold a special election.

Under a new state law passed in 2021 by Florida’s Republican-controlled Legislature and signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, all vote-by-mail requests made before Nov. 8 expired on New Year’s Eve. So if you’re a voter in Miami’s District 2, and you voted by mail in November, you still have to request a mail ballot again to send in your vote.

“We’re really trying to do a lot of outreach early in the year and encourage people not to wait,” said Christine White, Miami-Dade’s supervisor of elections. She said her department has been calling voters, as well as sending snail mail, emails and text messages to reach voters whose vote-by-mail requests have expired.

White said before Jan. 1 this year, about 16,000 voters in District 2 were registered to receive vote-by-mail ballots, or about 31% of all of the district’s registered voters. All of those requests expired. As of Wednesday, 2,677 District 2 voters have requested mail ballots so far.

The elections department will begin mailing ballots at Monday. Requests for mail ballots will be accepted until 5 p.m. on Feb. 17.

Request ballot online or in mail

Voters can request vote-by-mail ballots from the Miami-Dade County Elections Department. Requests can be filed online at https://www.miamidade.gov/global/elections/home.page, the department’s homepage.

Voters can also fill out a paper form and mail it to the following address:

Vote-by-Mail Ballot Section

Supervisor of Elections

P.O. Box 521250

Miami, FL 33152

For questions, call 305-499-8444 or email votebymail@miamidade.gov.

What you need to file request

According to the Miami-Dade Elections Department, voters are asked to have the following information ready to file a request for a vote-by-mail ballot:

▪ Full name of voter

▪ Date of birth

▪ Florida driver license number, Florida identification number or last four digits of your Social Security number

▪ Residence address

▪ Mailing address (if applicable)

▪ Voter registration number (optional)

▪ Date of the election or elections for which a vote-by-mail is needed

▪ Signature of voter (written requests only)

Early Voting

People can vote early at three locations from Feb. 23 through Feb. 25.

Locations for early voting:

▪ Miami City Hall, 3500 Pan American Drive

▪ Lemon City Library, 430 NE 61st St.

▪ Stephen P. Clark Government Center, 111 NW First St.

Early voting will be open at these locations on the following days and times:

▪ Feb. 23, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

▪ Feb. 24, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

▪ Feb. 25, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Election Day

Election Day will not be on a Tuesday, as usual. Because of requirements in Miami’s city charter for filling a vacant seat, the election must be held on Monday, Feb. 27. There will be no runoff — under city regulations, the person with the most votes will win.

Deadline to register to vote

If you live in District 2 and have not registered to vote, the deadline to register is Monday, Jan. 30.

This story was originally published January 25, 2023 at 3:04 PM.