Coronavirus Florida: Democrats Seek Million Mail-In Votes For November

With an eye toward a potential coronavirus disruption of the November elections, Democrats say they want to enlist up to 1 million Florida voters to opt for mail-in voting.

The Florida Democratic Party and the Democratic National Committee on Monday will announce a texting campaign to encourage Floridians to register to vote-by-mail.

State and national Democratic Party organizers say hundreds of volunteers will text over one million Florida voters to encourage them to vote-by-mail in the upcoming election.

For example, the DNC says it bought tens of millions of cell phone numbers across the country, including Florida, in January to improve voter contact. The State Democratic party officials say they have registered 54,000 voters and logged 45,000 volunteer shifts.

Two years ago, ahead of the midterm election, the Florida Democratic Party said it spent $1 million to increase vote-by-mail participation and helped sign up more than 578,000 new Democrats to vote remotely. Officials say the emphasis on more vote-by-mail turnout is "the reason why more Democrats voted in the 2020 Florida primary compared to 2016, despite lower in-person turnout on election day."

In the age of the coronavirus pandemic, officials are touting vote-by-mail as "a reliable and safe method for Floridians to vote during this time of uncertainty."

"We need to modernize our voting systems to protect voters, and our partnership with the DNC to enroll Floridians in vote-by-mail does just that," said Juan Pe'alosa, Florida Democratic Party executive director. "If Trump and DeSantis won't act to protect the vote from a global pandemic, we will."

Vote-by-mail also relieves stress on local elections infrastructure. The Palm Beach County elections office suffered from cancellations of poll workers fearing exposure to the virus during the March 17 primary, causing delays in confusion in some precincts.

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