Ballot papers will soon reach post boxes for the St. Petersburg primaries

St. Petersburg voters: It’s voting time again.

More than 95,000 postal ballot papers will hit the mailboxes of domestic voters this week ahead of the city’s local elections. Another 1,400 have already been sent to absent military and foreign voters.

Upon receipt, the voting slips can be filled out and returned immediately.

The August 24 local election ballot includes eight names vying for the city’s next mayor. If no candidate gets more than 50 percent of the vote, the two front-runners advance to a parliamentary election on November 2nd.

In addition to Alderman Darden Rice and Robert Blackmon, former Pinellas County Commissioner Ken Welch, former State Representative Wengay Newton, restaurateur Pete Boland, small business owner Marcile Powers, University of South Florida St. Petersburg student, Michael Ingram, and a native of St. Petersburg Torry Nelson, enrollment candidate Michael S. Levinson, is also hoping to replace outgoing Mayor Rick Kriseman.

The election also includes area codes for city council districts 1, 4, and 8.

Voters can vote by mail or in person on August 24th.

Postal ballots must be received by the Pinellas County Polling Officer by 7:00 p.m. on August 24 to be counted. They can be handed in at one of the three election supervisory offices or sent by post, but they cannot be received in the polling stations. Voters who choose to send in their ballots should wait at least a week for the ballot to arrive, Pinella deputy election officer Dustin Chase said in a press release.

Voters can still request a postal vote by mail by calling Pinellas County Electoral Services at 727-464-VOTE (8683) or emailing MailBallot@VotePinellas.gov. The closing date for entries is August 16 at 5 p.m.

Florida’s controversial new electoral law now requires people requesting ballots by postal vote to have a Florida driver’s license, Florida identification number, or the last four digits of their social security number.

The law will not affect many St. Petersburg residents who vote on that area code, Chase told the Tampa Bay Times.

The story goes on

“Anyone who already has a postal ballot on file doesn’t need to submit a postal ballot,” said Chase.

Voters who receive a postal ballot can still choose to vote in person. A voter who chooses to do so should bring his postal ballot to the polling station and hand it over to an election worker, the electoral office said. But if a voter does not bring the postal ballot with them, he can still vote in person if the election workers can confirm that the voter has not yet submitted a postal ballot.

The deadline for registration for the local elections in St. Petersburg ends on July 26th. People can register online at RegisterToVoteFlorida.gov, by mail, or in person at the Pinellas County Election Officer’s office.

The post Ballot papers will soon reach post boxes for the St. Petersburg primaries first appeared on Daily Florida Press.

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