Convenient but not perfect
Many people like the convenience of voting by mail.
But given the nature of the system, with a large number of ballots — more than 2 million mail ballots for the March 17 primaries and local government elections — problems crop up.
In 2014, Charlotte Rodstrom, an unsuccessful candidate for Broward County Commission, said the return envelope and secrecy sleeve to protect the ballot weren’t enough to ensure confidentiality of mail ballots.
Using a 100-watt bulb, she said, it was possible to see through the sheets of paper and determine how someone voted.
In 2016, a handful of Broward voters said they got mail ballots without a referendum on legalizing medical marijuana in Florida.
The elections office said at the time that it found an instance in which humidity in the machine caused pages to stick together in a printer, so it printed twice on one side instead of on the page it was supposed to.
In 2018, the deadline tripped people up — as happens often. In the midterm election, more than 6,600 ballots that were mailed ahead of the election in 65 counties were not counted because they were not received by Election Day. Ballots must be at a county elections office by 7 p.m. on Election Day; postmarks don’t count.