LAKE COUNTY, Fla. — Organizations are partnering with election offices across Florida for National Voter Registration Day to ensure eligible voters are prepared in November.

The deadline to register to vote is Oct. 7. Many election officials are hosting voter registration drives leading up to the deadline. 

What You Need To Know

  • Sept. 17 is National Voter Registration Day, and efforts across the state are aimed at giving people that are eligible the opportunity to register before the deadline

  • The deadline to register to vote in the November election is Oct. 7 for the state of Florida

  • Lake County Supervisor of Elections Office is hosting a voter's registration challenge at all the high schools, as well as churches and other registration drives

Lake County Supervisor of Elections Alan Hays said in addition to attending community events and hosting voter registration drives, his office is also conducting a first-time voters registration challenge at all the high schools.

The challenge includes pre-registering 16- and 17-year-old students, and registering 18-year-old students who are eligible to vote.

The school with the most registered students will win a special trophy and plaque.

Hays said while he’s working to educate first-time voters on the importance of exercising your right to vote and making educated decisions on future leaders, parents have a responsibility to set the example.

“Like many things, first-time voters have an attitude. Many times that’s been set by the parents or the grandparents,” he said. “If the parents and grandparents consider voting a responsibility and a duty, then the chances are their teenagers are going to feel the same way.”

One of the groups working to get potential voters registered is Poder LatinX, who is mobilizing in 6 key cities across the U.S. Tuesday, including Orlando.

They set up a table at UCF to help dozens of students register to become new voters. However, they are particularly focused on Hispanic voters. According to data from the 2020 election, out of 30 million eligible Latino voters, only about 16.5 million actually voted, numbers they are working to change.

It’s estimated that over 36 million Hispanic people will be eligible to register and vote this year. However, reps with Poder LatinX worry many won’t.

“Because we have a long ingrained idea that voting is hard, voting is complicated. We have to take out so much time to even get the voter registration card,” said Kevin Duarte, an environmental organizer with Poder LatinX.

Now that there are many new registered voters, Poder LatinX shared their next step is keeping them engaged to get them to show up to the polls this November.

“Do your research and educate yourself so you can make an informed vote and get out and make your voice heard,” said Rodriguez.

To register to vote in English, click here or click here to register in Spanish.

According to the Orange County Supervisor of Elections Office website, they received over 200,000 vote-by-mail requests for the 2022 general election. However, this year, officials are seeing much lower numbers.

“A lot of voters like to do vote-by-mail now,” said Orange County Supervisor of Elections Chief Administrator Christopher Heath. “Our numbers are about half what they were this time two years ago, so we’re encouraging anyone who does want to vote by mail to request that ballot.”

The last day to request a vote-by-mail ballot is 10 days before the election day. Vote-by-mail ballots have to be turned into the elections office the day of the election.

As of Sept. 17, there are over 820,000 registered active voters in Orange County, according to the website.

Hays said Lake County is seeing pretty good registration numbers, and he believes they’re going to continue growing.

“We’re just under 250,000 registered voters now and we’re seeing those numbers increase daily,” he said. “We’re also seeing an increase, daily of the number of people requesting vote-by-mail ballots.”

You can register to vote a few different ways. More information on how can be found here.