When one of the recommended ways to remain safe during this pandemic is avoiding large crowds, voting becomes a stressful task for many. The simple act of standing in line and slipping behind a voting booth now represents a measure of risk despite the necessity to exercise our power as citizens. The vote by mail system, which is most often used by the military, students, and those who physically cannot go to polling stations, has gained renewed, and now politicized, attention in recent days. This ongoing discussion is not our focus, however.

Achieve Escambia believes in equitable opportunities and outcomes for every person of Escambia County. To that end, we encourage those who want to avoid polling stations, who may too busy to visit polling stations on election day, or who have health, transportation, or other extraneous circumstances that prevent them from going to polling stations, to consider using the vote by mail system. By no means is this an endorsement of anything more than exercising each citizen’s constitutional right to have a say in our government.

Registered voters in Escambia County must visit https://escambiavotes.gov/vote-by-mail to request a mail-in ballot. Requests must be made by 5 p.m. on the 10th day before the election, October 24th. Ballots must then be received by mail no later than 7 p.m. on November 3rd. Voters can also drop off their ballots at the Supervisor of Election’s office (213 Palafox Plaza, Second Floor) or early voting stations during early voting hours.

Pandemic or not, there are many reasons why someone would not go to a polling place on election day. Health, both mental and physical, time, transportation, and more contribute to the lack of turnout on election day. Voting by mail takes away the stress of finding time in a single day to vote. At the time of this writing, there are 50 days to request a mail-in ballot and 60 days until the election. That is nearly two months to request, consider, vote, and mail in your voice to the government. Achieve Escambia believes in equitable opportunities and outcomes for everyone. Voting by mail ensures those who are afraid their voice will not be heard can still exercise their rights in this election.

https://escambiavotes.gov/vote-by-mail