How to Vote in Florida in 2026

Florida closes the books 29 days before the election, so Monday, October 5, 2026 is the deadline to register and to update your address.^[2] Register or update online at RegisterToVoteFlorida.gov, in person at your county Supervisor of Elections office or a driver license office, or by mail postmarked by the deadline. If you turn 18 on or before November 3, you can register now. The address update matters as much as the registration: if you moved from another county and have not updated by October 5, in most counties you will have to vote a provisional ballot instead of a regular one.

If you voted by mail in 2024, you will not automatically get a ballot in 2026. Florida law now expires every vote-by-mail request at the end of the calendar year of the general election, so every request from the 2024 cycle lapsed on December 31, 2024.^[3] You must request again, and the deadline to request that a ballot to be mailed to you is 5 p.m. local time on Thursday, October 22, 2026. The return deadline is stricter than most people think: your voted ballot must be received by your Supervisor of Elections by 7 p.m. on Election Day, regardless of when it's postmarked. Florida is not a "postmark" state, and mailing a ballot on Election Day is too late. Drop boxes at Supervisor of Elections offices are available until 7 p.m. on Election Day, but boxes at early voting sites are only available during early voting hours. If your signature is missing or does not match, you can fix it with a "cure affidavit" received by 5 p.m. on Thursday, November 5, so track your ballot through your county Supervisor and act fast if it flags a problem. Signatures change with age and injury; you can update the signature on file with your Supervisor of Elections any time before the election.

Every Florida county must offer early voting from Saturday, October 24 through Saturday, October 31, 2026, and counties may add days as early as October 19 and as late as Sunday, November 1.^[4] There is no single statewide early voting calendar, so check your own county Supervisor of Elections for the days, hours, and sites where you live. On Election Day, polls are open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. local time, and Florida spans two time zones, so the Panhandle west of the Apalachicola River runs on Central Time. The most useful sentence in Florida election law: if you are in line at 7 p.m., you are entitled to vote. Do not leave the line.

Florida asks for a current, valid photo ID with a signature when you vote in person, both during early voting and on Election Day. Most people use a Florida driver license or a Florida ID card from the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. These also count: a United States passport, a debit or credit card, military identification, student identification, retirement center identification, neighborhood association identification, public assistance identification, a veteran health identification card from the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, a license to carry a concealed weapon or firearm, and an employee identification card issued by any branch, department, agency, or entity of the federal government, the state, a county, or a municipality.^[6]

If your photo ID does not carry your signature, bring a second piece of identification that does. The two together meet the requirement.^[6]

If you arrive without an acceptable ID, you still vote. You are entitled to a provisional ballot, and it counts if you are eligible, you voted in the correct precinct, and the signature on your provisional ballot certificate matches the signature your county has on file.^[6] No one at a Florida polling place can send you away for lack of ID.

Voting by mail asks for a number instead of a card. When you request a mail ballot you give your Florida driver license number, your Florida ID card number, or the last four digits of your Social Security number.^[6]

One change is coming, and it does not touch this election. Starting January 1, 2027, Florida's list gets shorter, and student identification, retirement center identification, neighborhood association identification and public assistance identification come off it.^[7] For November 3, 2026, everything above still counts.

Florida elections are run by 67 independently elected county Supervisors of Elections.^[5] The state sets the rules, but your polling place, your sample ballot, your early voting sites and hours, your drop box locations, and your mail ballot tracking all live with your county. The Florida Division of Elections publishes the statewide directory of all 67 Supervisors at dos.fl.gov, and that is the one link that answers every county question, including, "Were do I vote?" Polling places can change between elections, so confirm yours before November 3 instead of returning to where you voted last time.

Sources

[1] Florida Statutes 100.011, Election Day and poll hours

[2] Florida Statutes 97.055, the registration deadline and RegisterToVoteFlorida.gov

[3] Florida Statutes 101.62, vote-by-mail requests and their calendar-year expiry and the Division of Elections Vote-by-Mail page

[4] Florida Statutes 101.657, the early voting window

[5] Florida Division of Elections, county Supervisor of Elections directory

[6] Florida Division of Elections, Voter Registration and Voting Guide, 2026 election cycle

[7] Florida Statutes 101.043, voter identification at the polls, as revised effective January 1, 2027 and the Florida Senate summary of CS/CS/HB 991 (2026)