St. Lucie County - Thursday January 11, 2024: More than 20,000 voters in St. Lucie County have been moved to inactive status because they either failed to respond within 30 days to the address confirmation final notice sent to them, or the address confirmation letter sent to their registered address was returned as undeliverable.
A news release from the St. Lucie County Supervisor of Elections office characterized the high number as "unprecedented."
Previously a voter’s registration record would remain active as long as the address confirmation notice was not returned as undeliverable.
However, Senate Bill 7050, which was approved by Governor DeSantis on May 24 last year, added an additional registration maintenance provision requiring a voter to respond to the Supervisor of Election's address confrontation letter within 30 days. A failure to respond leads to placing that voter's registration status on the inactive list.
“It is vital that voters keep their records current," said St. Lucie County Supervisor of Elections Gertrude Walker in a news release.
Walker is now required by law conduct a general registration list maintenance program "to protect the integrity of the electoral process by ensuring the maintenance of accurate and current voter registration records."
In her news release Walker reports that as of September 8, 2023, a total of 22,304 voters were notified that they had not had any activity in the preceding two general elections and did not respond to an address confirmation letter within 30-days as required.
The list maintenance by the Elections office was completed on December 19th and upon completion "an unprecedented number of voters, approximately 20,000, were moved to inactive status," states the release.
An inactive voter can be reinstated by :
- updating their record which can be done in writing, by going to the polls during Early Voting or Election Day
- requesting a Vote-by-Mail ballot
- by visiting the Supervisor of Elections office
Inactive voters remain in the inactive status for two general elections prior to being removed from the voter file.
If you have moved and have not notified the St. Lucie County Supervisor of Elections office, you can update your records online at www.slcelections.com or call (772) 462-1500 for more information.