Approximately 32,000 mail-in ballots haven’t been returned in Duval County, the Southern Poverty Law Center says

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — More than 23 million people nationwide haven’t returned their vote-by-mail ballot and are at risk of arriving too late to count. That’s according to the latest analysis released Monday by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

“That’s a very big concern,” said Seth Levi, Chief Strategy Officer for the SPLC. “It sounds huge, but it could also just be that a certain percentage of people, for whatever reason, requested a ballot and aren’t going to send it back because they may just end up voting in person on Election Day.” Levi said there’s never been this level of vote-by-mail ballots requested, which he attributes to the coronavirus pandemic.

On Election Eve in Florida, there are an estimated 978,882 unreturned mail-in ballots. Here are the estimates for outstanding ballots in local counties provided by the SPLC:

-Duval County: ~32,000

-Nassau County: ~3,000

-St. Johns County: ~9,200

-Clay County: ~8,400

-Putnam County: ~2,200

If you’re still holding onto your mail-in ballot, do not send it back via USPS. “It will not get there in time,” Levi said. On Election Day, a mail-in ballot may only be returned to the Supervisor of Elections Office before 7 p.m.If you decide to go to the polls to vote instead, bring the vote-by-mail ballot with you. If you don’t have it, you can still vote a regular ballot if the supervisor of elections' office can confirm it hasn’t received your vote-by-mail ballot. If you believe the supervisor of elections' office is wrong about receiving the vote-by-mail ballot or if the supervisor of elections' office cannot confirm the voter has already voted a vote-by-mail ballot, you can vote a provisional ballot.

Even if you’ve mailed in your ballot or dropped it off at a polling site, it’s still a good idea to check the status of your ballot. You can do that by click here.

Cox Media Group