Election Update: More than 700k Floridians have returned ballots with one month to go

Floridians are voting.
 
The Florida Division of Elections reported that nearly 701,000 voters across the state returned their vote-by-mail ballot through Oct. 5. The state elections office reported that 27,649 Collier County voters and 33,920 Lee County voters have returned their vote-by-mail ballots.
 
There has been a surge in the number of people requesting vote-by-mail ballots this election cycle, due in part to concern over COVID-19. The state elections office reported that more than 2.3 million Floridians voted by mail in the August 2020 primary, up from nearly 1.3 million people four years earlier.
 
More than 3 million general election ballots have already been cast nationwide, according to a recent CNN and Edison Research survey, with more than 32 million ballot requests made in 37 states.
 
The Florida Division of Elections says more than 4.7 million ballots have been sent to voters but not yet returned. By comparison, about 2.7 million Floridians voted by mail in the 2016 general election.
 
With an uptick in vote-by-mail requests, elections officials are touting the ability for voters to track the status of their mail-in ballots. The tracking function allows voters to check to see where their ballot is in the process, from request to receipt.
 
Collier voters can head to the Collier Supervisor of Elections Office website to track their ballot, while Lee voters can find the tracking function on the Lee Supervisor of Elections Office website.
 
Vote-by-mail ballots must be received by 7 p.m. on Nov. 3.