Elections officials: Current requests lag behind 2024 count
With the 2026 primary election—the first of two opportunities for Osceola County residents to cast a ballot—just three months and a couple days away, it’s time to think about that process.
While it’s good to do research now on who you might vote for, it’s more important now to consider how you’ll vote.
Early voting for the primary occurs Aug. 7-16, and the Osceola Supervisor of Elections office will open two extra locations (more details coming soon) to help facilitate the way the majority of Osceola voters did their civic duty in 2024.
The polls will also be open on the Aug. 18 election day, but if you wish to vote by mail, you will need to make a new request for one, even if you voted by mail in the last or previous elections. New state law mandates that voters wishing to vote by mail must submit a new request for a ballot each election cycle, or every two years.
“We used to have a box on the mailed ballot that voters could check if they wanted to keep their request active for the next election,” Supervisor of Elections Arrington said. “We don’t have that anymore.” Arrington’s office is sending out a mailer to all registered voters who currently do not have a vote-by-mail request on file for the 2026 election cycle. That notice will have instructions on how to make the request, or voters can visit www. voteosceola.gov .
While some 60,000 of the county’s 220,000 registered voters requested a mail ballot in 2024, helping to compile a 74.37% voter turnout in the November general election, just 20,000 requests have been made for this year’s elections. Arrington said the appeal to get mail-in registrations is based on finances, not politics.
“Vote by mail is the most cost-effective way to get a vote cast,” she said, noting the cost per ballot cast through the mail is about $3, versus the $4-7 cost for a vote cast in person. “And statistics show that a person with a ballot in hand is twice as likely to vote it than someone (who relies on) going to the polls.”
Arrington said that mail-in voting serves as a “traffic controller” on Election Day.
“Our lines are heaviest when the polls open at 7 a.m., then right about 5 p.m. when people get off of work and realize they have to go vote,” she said.
While election officials extoll the virtues of letting voters cast ballots from home and drop them in the mail, some in the Republican Party have in the past questioned how those votes are counted.
“We’re not against voting by mail. We just have questions with the security of it,” Osceola County Republican Executive Committee Chairman Joel Davis said. “We want to assure that legitimate voters are casting those ballots. Elections are meaningful to people.”
Another challenge facing Arrington’s office is establishing new precincts lines and maps for the new U.S. congressional map approved along partisan lines by the Florida Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis last week.
While all of Osceola County was part of Congressional District 9 along with small parts of Orange and Polk counties in previous cycles, the one map assigned Celebration, Reunion, the Four Corners area and a sliver of Poinciana into District 18 with Polk County.
That map—which also lumped the rest of Osceola into a massive new district that includes Indian River, Glades, Highlands and Okeechobee counties—has faced at least two legal challenges from voter groups that say the map was drawn solely to provide the Republican Party a voting advantage in as many districts as possible, essentially flaunting a state charter amendment voters approved in 2010 to stop what many Democratic leaders called blatant gerrymandering.
“So we’re going to keep the old maps while we draw new ones, and see which ones they tell us to use,” Arrington said. “We’re going to try to keep people assigned to the same polling places even if their precincts change. We don’t know yet how many voters it will affect.”
Ballots must be prepared for distribution the first week of July ahead of the August primary.
