DeLand, FL – Time’s running out if you’re a Republican or a Democrat who wants to help decide which presidential candidate represents the party in November.
Tuesday (February 16th) is the statewide deadline to get your voter registration taken care of in time for March’s presidential primary.
Even though Monday is President’s Day, Volusia County Deputy Supervisor of Elections Lisa Lewis says the county elections office in DeLand will be open as normal that day and she’s expecting lots of people to show up to register at the last minute.
“We’ve seen quite a bit this week,” Lewis added. “There will be no mail coming in on Monday with it being President’s Day, but Tuesday should be a real big day. Especially for the mail.”
Those who don’t want to go there can go to any Volusia County public library branch. Those will also be open on Monday.
In Flagler, the County Supervisor of Elections’s office will be closed on President’s Day.
Because Florida has a closed primary system, only those who formally identify with a certain party can vote in that party’s respective primary. That means non-party affiliated voters – which currently make up around 26.7% of registered voters in Volusia – won’t be able to cast a ballot for any Republican or Democrat candidates.
Lewis says anyone who wants to change party affiliation, update their signature or register with them for the first time has to put that in writing with them by Tuesday in order to participate on March 15th.
“Address changes you can do up to the day you come in to vote on Election Day,” Lewis noted. “You can even do that over the phone.”
As of February 12th, 97,061 registered voters in Volusia are NPA’s, or non-party affiliated. 132,019 are Democrats and 122,452 are Republicans. 12,638 are affiliated with other parties.
The ballot on the Republican side features 13 candidates, many of whom have already dropped out of the race. Those include Chris Christie, Carly Fiorina, Jim Gilmore, Lindsey Graham, Mike Huckabee, Rand Paul and Rick Santorum.
The Republicans who remain active as of Friday night are Jeb Bush, Ben Carson, Ted Cruz, John Kasich, Marco Rubio and Donald Trump.
Only 3 candidates are on the Democrat ballot: Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Martin O’Malley. O’Malley has dropped out of the race.
Nothing else will be on the ballot for March 15th in Volusia except for those who live in Edgewater. City residents can vote to approve or deny a $3.5 million general obligation bond to finance construction, expansion and renovation for city recreational facilities and parks.
Flagler residents also won’t have anything else to vote on March 15th unless they live in Bunnell. Bill Baxley and Jan Reeger are challenging incumbent Elbert Tucker for his seat on the City Commission.
Early voting is from March 5th through the 12th in Volusia and Flagler.
Around 54,000 absentee ballots were mailed to Volusia voters on February 9th, per Lewis. Around 65,000 absentee ballots were mailed out in Volusia for the 2012 presidential election.
Click here to see the full ballot in Volusia. Click here to see the full ballot in Flagler.
Copyright 2016 Southern Stone Communications.