14,000 Escambia County voters must update their registration to get mail-in ballot

More than 14,000 voters in Escambia County last week got a notice from the Supervisor of Elections Office that their registration lacked the required personal identification information to receive a mail-in ballot.

Escambia County Supervisor of Elections David Stafford told the News Journal his office sent out the notice because of a new elections law passed by the Florida Legislature that requires the information to be on the registration of anyone requesting a mail-in ballot.

The new law, passed in 2021, has been the subject of a federal court battle for its provision changing the requirements for how often voters must request mail-in ballots, restricting the use of drop boxes and changing rules surrounding voter registration groups.

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Earlier this month, the 11th U.S. Court of Appeals overturned a lower court's ruling that said the law violated the Voting Rights Act.

Stafford said sending out the notices to 14,000 voters, which is about 6% of all registered voters in Escambia County, wasn't required by the new law, but he thought it was the right thing to do.

The 14,000 voters were missing either their driver's license or other state-issued ID number or the last four digits of their Social Security number on their voter registration file. That information has been required to register to vote in Florida since 2006, Stafford said.

Stafford said it's likely most of the 14,000 voters have not updated their voter registration since then.

If the voter doesn't update their information, they will not be able to request a mail-in ballot until the information is updated, but it won't affect their eligibility to vote in-person.

"Obviously, people are concerned when they get something like this," Stafford said. "This in no way impacts their ability to cast a ballot to vote, and it doesn't affect their voter registration status."

In 2020, more than 55% of voters cast ballots in mail-in or early voting locations.

The notices sent out to the 14,000 voters include information on how they can update their registration online, but also includes a paper application they can fill out and send back with postage paid by the Supervisor of Elections office.

With the new law and election season starting up soon, there is likely to be a rush of people requesting mail-in ballots.

"We're trying to get out ahead of it," Stafford said.

Jim Little can be reached at jwlittle@pnj.com and 850-208-9827.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Mail in ballots: Escambia voters must update registration