CAPE CORAL, Fla. — In the age of the coronavirus, this presidential election might look a bit different at polls in Southwest Florida, such as lines of cars coming by early voting locations to drop off mail-in ballots.
"I was talking with the gentlemen collecting the ballots and they said it had been extremely busy," said Clara Anne Graham, League of Women Voters President in Lee County.
She's one of more than 140,000 voters using a mail-in ballot in Lee County.
"That was the fun times actually going on Election Day. I used to do it until this year. With the virus, I just thought I can't take that risk," said Graham.
Instead, it’s the risk of casting a ballot by mail.
"Well, at this point, I'm not sure the mail delivery would meet the time frame for the mail-in ballots to reach by Election Day," said Graham.
She says the process requires trust, but Lee and Collier Counties make it easier. Both election offices allow voters to track their vote-by-mail ballot online.
"With the mail-in ballots, they're just not sure, but with the link to follow your mail-in ballot you can be sure it's being processed," said Graham.
Collier's Supervisor of Elections, Jennifer Edwards, says they mailed out around 125,000 ballots and about half have been completed and mailed back.
Those voters can now check the status of their ballot on CollierVotes.com.
"If they have an issue with their ballot, it will say it has been referred to the canvasing board. If they see that and have not received communication from our office yet, they can just call us and we'll help them cure their ballot," said Edwards.
You can find the webpage for tracking your mail-in ballot in Collier Co. by clicking here.
For Lee County, you can click here to track your mail-in ballot.
Both websites require voters to enter their name and birth date.
However, if you prefer the old-fashioned route, Edwards says sending it by USPS is okay too.
"The United States Post Office said the voters need to mail their ballots at least a week before Election Day to return them to us so we encourage our voters to do that and we really haven't had any issues with our USPS," said Edwards.
Fox 4 is in your corner and we'll work on getting answers. Let us know if you're experiencing any problems at the polls by contacting us here.
