ORLANDO, Fla. – NOTE: This story originally appeared in the Orlando Sentinel.
Orange County’s in-person voters won’t be mailed sample ballots for the upcoming primary, a shift that has upset some voters and election advocates.
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Primary voters can view, and then print, a sample ballot via a QR code, which was provided on a mailer sent to their homes. They can also call or email the elections office and request a sample ballot be sent to them or stop in and pick one up.
But, in a shift from past elections, no paper sample ballots will automatically be sent to those who didn’t register to vote by mail, said Blake Summerlin, a spokesperson for the Orange County Supervisor of Elections, in an emailed statement.
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However, for the November general election, the county will move back to traditional paper sample ballots, as it has in the past, Summerlin added.
He did not directly respond to a question about why the office had decided against sample ballots mailed to homes for the primary. “We have used a variety of sample ballot mailer formats in the past to provide voters with important election information and help them prepare for upcoming elections,” Summerlin wrote. “Because each election is unique, the format and method of providing this information varies.”
The QR codes first landed in Orange mailboxes last year during the special election for Senate District 15 and House District 40, and that system has now been expanded for the Aug. 18 primary.
A sample ballot also ran recently in the Orlando Sentinel, which — paired with the QR codes — serves as an appropriate substitute for mailing them, Summerlin said.
But Eugenia Economos, a 73-year-old county resident, said older voters are in a panic about the change. The elderly people she knows want to vote, but they often have little understanding of technology, she said.
Contacting the elections office to request a paper sample ballot can also be too much, she argued, as it demands more use of technology, by phone or email. And an extra in-person visit can be challenging, especially for the disabled.
“They tell me they take their paper ballots into voting booths so that they can remember who to vote for,” she said. “Without having paper ballots mailed to them, they’re going to be disenfranchised. They’re not going to know where to go, how to do it, who the candidates are.”
The mailer with the QR code doesn’t mention that traditional sample ballots won’t be sent at all, she added, so some people she spoke to were still unknowingly waiting for them to arrive.
Lake, Osceola and Seminole counties are still mailing sample ballots to voters for the primary, which is consistent with past elections, officials said.
Orange’s shift worries the League of Women Voters of Orange County. Kathy Schmitz, the group’s co-president, agreed older people will more than likely be put off by the QR codes. But younger and low-income people also might not have access to printers to make their own copies of sample ballots, she said.
“Even those who are savvy enough to use the QR codes often like to mark their ballots and take them into the voting booth with them,” she said. “The tech makes that more difficult.”
The advocacy group has already reached out to the supervisor of elections office about the change, she added, and urged bringing the old system back for the general election.
For the primary, voters who want a sample ballot mailed to them can contact the Orange County Supervisor of Elections at (407) 836-2070 or at sampleballot@ocfelections.gov, or pick one up at one at the election offices at 119 W. Kaley Street, Orlando or 9401 W. Colonial Drive, Suite 360A, Ocoee.