How Florida Elections Work, With the 2026 Dates

Florida offers three ways to vote: by mail, at an early voting site or in person on Election Day (Florida Division of Elections).

Elections are run county by county. Florida has 67 counties, each with a Supervisor of Elections who conducts elections within that county, and some municipal clerks run their own local elections when those are not held together with county elections (Division of Elections contacts). The state Division of Elections, part of the Florida Department of State, sets dates and publishes forms, but a vote-by-mail request is handled by the Supervisor in the voter's county of registration, not by the state (Vote-by-Mail page).

The calendar follows fixed rules. A general election is held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November of every even-numbered year, and a primary election is held 11 weeks before it to choose party nominees for national, state, county and district offices (Election Dates). A governor is elected every four years at a general election, a president every four years in a year that is a multiple of four, and special elections may be called at any time of year (Election Dates). The Florida Department of State lists its address as the R.A. Gray Building, 500 South Bronough Street, Tallahassee, phone 850.245.6500 (Florida Department of State). Local elections for a city, county or special district can fall on other dates; the Division points voters to its Local Elections Database and to the county Supervisor for those (Election Dates).

The 2026 general election is November 3, 2026, after a primary held on August 18, 2026 (Florida Division of Elections).

The early voting rows are the mandatory period only; the Division tells voters to ask their Supervisor of Elections about optional extra days (Election Dates). The same page links a key results reporting timeline for each 2026 election and an Election Dates and Activities Calendar under Publications (Election Dates).

A Florida voter must be a U.S. citizen, a Florida resident and at least 18, and must register 29 days before an election (Register to Vote page).

The Division lists two more conditions: not having been adjudicated mentally incapacitated with respect to voting without the right restored, and not having been convicted of a felony without voting rights restored. Sixteen-year-olds may pre-register (Division of Elections). Applications can be filed online at RegisterToVoteFlorida.gov, at any tax collector's office that issues Florida driver licenses or ID cards, through a designated voter registration agency, or by mail or in person on the statewide form DS-DE 39 (Division of Elections). Submitting false information is a third degree felony, with maximum penalties of $5,000 and/or 5 years in prison (Division of Elections).

Party choice matters in the primary. Florida is a closed primary election state: only voters registered with a party may vote for that party's candidates in a primary, and a party change must be made by the registration deadline for that primary (Closed Primary Elections). There are two exceptions. When every candidate for an office belongs to the same party and the winner faces no opposition in the general election, with no qualified write-in, all registered voters may vote in that contest; and nonpartisan judicial, school board, special district and local referendum items appear on every voter's primary ballot (Closed Primary Elections). At the general election, all registered voters get the same ballot (Division of Elections).

After registering or updating, the county Supervisor mails a voter information card listing party, assigned precinct and polling place, and district offices; the state does not issue these cards, and the card cannot be used as ID at the polls (Division of Elections).

A Florida vote-by-mail ballot is requested from the county Supervisor of Elections and must be back in that office by 7:00 pm local time on Election Day (Vote-by-Mail page).

Requests can be made by signed writing on the statewide form DS-DE 160, in person or by phone, and must include the voter's name, date of birth, address, a Florida driver license or ID number or the last four digits of the Social Security number, and a signature if written (Division of Elections). A voter, an immediate family member, a legal guardian or a designee for a voter with a disability may make the request (Division of Elections).

The request deadline is 5 p.m. on the 12th day before the election; the Supervisor must mail the ballot within 2 business days of a request and no later than the 10th day before Election Day (Vote-by-Mail page). Ballots requested inside the final 10 days need a special emergency affidavit (Division of Elections). A voter may pick up a ballot in person, and a designee may collect ballots for two other voters per election beyond immediate family, using the affidavit on form DS-DE 162 (Division of Elections).

The return deadline is about receipt, not postmark: a ballot arriving after 7:00 pm on Election Day does not count, with a 10-day extension only for overseas voters in Presidential Preference Primary and general elections when the ballot is postmarked or dated by Election Day (Division of Elections). Voted ballots can also be dropped at secure ballot intake stations, which sit at early voting sites and other authorized places and are continuously monitored by a Supervisor's employee (Early Voting page).

Early voting lets a registered voter cast a ballot at any designated site in the county of registration before Election Day, in the same manner and on the same equipment used on Election Day (Early Voting and Secure Ballot Intake Stations).

When a state or federal office is on the ballot, early voting must run at least from the 10th day through the 3rd day before the election, and a Supervisor may extend it to start as early as the 15th day and end on the 2nd day; each site must open at least 8 and no more than 12 hours a day, under s. 101.657, Florida Statutes (Division of Elections). For local-only elections, early voting is at the Supervisor's option (Division of Elections).

On Election Day a voter must go to the assigned precinct, and polls are open from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. local time; anyone in line at 7:00 p.m. may still vote (Election Day Voting). Early and Election Day voters must bring a current and valid photo ID with signature. The accepted list includes a Florida driver license, a Florida ID card, a U.S. passport, a debit or credit card, military, student, retirement center, neighborhood association and public assistance IDs, a VA health identification card, a concealed weapon license and a government employee ID (Division of Elections).

A voter without proper ID, or one who is challenged, can still vote a provisional ballot. The voter then has until 5 PM local time on the second day after the election to present further evidence of eligibility, and the county canvassing board compares the ballot certificate signature with the registration record (Division of Elections). A missing or mismatched signature can be corrected by filing an affidavit on form DS-DE 210 with the Supervisor (Division of Elections).

With the October 5 registration deadline past, the dates still open for the 2026 general election are the October 22 mail request deadline, early voting from October 24 to 31 and Election Day on November 3 (Election Dates).

Early voting site lists for the 2026 General Election were posted as a PDF zip file on a page updated October 2, 2026 (Division of Elections). The quickest check for a precinct or site change is the county Supervisor's own site, which the Division names as the source of the most current information (Election Dates).

Two official pages carry older update stamps. The Election Dates page itself shows a last update of August 22, 2025 (Election Dates). The Emergency and Disaster Election Resources page was last updated October 25, 2024 and still describes the 2024 general election dates and Executive Order 24-234, issued after Hurricanes Helene and Milton; it carried no 2026 storm notice when read (Division of Elections). Its advice reads that a voter who must change address to receive a mail ballot because of a hurricane should contact the county Supervisor of Elections as soon as possible (Division of Elections).

Last verified: October 18, 2026, by re-reading the Division of Elections calendar, voting, registration and county contact pages for the 2026 general election.