Miami-Dade Early Voting Enters Its Final Hours: Sites Close at 7 P.M., and After Tonight Mail Ballots Go Only to Doral or Downtown
The any-site freedom of early voting ends at 7 p.m. Sunday across Miami-Dade's 28 sites. From tonight, a completed mail ballot can be returned in person only at Elections Headquarters in Doral or the Downtown Branch Office - and it must be received by 7 p.m. Tuesday.
Miami-Dade's early voting window is down to its final hours. The county's 28 early voting sites, open since October 19, close at 7 p.m. Sunday, according to the Miami-Dade County Supervisor of Elections. Until that hour, any registered Miami-Dade voter can cast a ballot at any early voting site in the county - in South Dade, the Homestead Community Center at 1601 North Krome Avenue and the Naranja Branch Library at 14850 SW 280th Street among them - with an accepted form of identification carrying a photo and signature.
What changes at 7 p.m. is the part voters most often miss. After early voting ends, a vote-by-mail ballot can no longer be dropped at any site: the county's release states that voters may only return mail ballots at Elections Headquarters in Doral or at the Downtown Branch Office at the Stephen P. Clark Center. A mailed ballot must be received by 7 p.m. on Election Day, Tuesday, November 3 - arrival, not a postmark, is what counts - which is why the in-person return at those two offices is the reliable route for a ballot still sitting at home tonight.
Election Day itself runs on the stricter rule: on Tuesday, polls are open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and each voter must vote at their assigned precinct, not at any site in the county. The Sunday-afternoon decision is therefore a simple one - vote at any of the 28 sites before 7 p.m. today, return a mail ballot in person at Doral or Downtown by 7 p.m. Tuesday, or vote at your own precinct on Tuesday. After 7 p.m. tonight, the first of those three doors closes for good.
