With a deadly virus still affecting the country, voters have been encouraged to make a plan to vote and vote early – to be safe and educated on the issues. Before today’s Presidential Election Day began, more than 100 million people had voted early by mail or in person, according to reports.

Here in Florida, voters will also decide on key amendments such as whether to keep the state as a closed party state and whether to increase the state’s minimum wage from $8.56 per hour to $10 per hour and increase it annually by a dollar until it reaches $15 per hour, etc.

In Orange County, open public offices include Sheriff, Property Appraiser and School Board, to name a few.

If you requested a mail out ballot and you received it but did not mail it back, you must turn it in to your polling site (they will give you a new ballot) or you can take your COMPLETED and SIGNED MAIL IN BALLOT to the elections office – for it to be counted. (You have several hours left to turn it in – before the elections office closes at 7 p.m.) It is illegal to vote twice. County election officials are pleased with the number of ballots that have been returned either at an early voting location or their office.

If you have any questions about voting today, contact the Orange County Supervisor of Elections Office, (407) 836-2070.

This election is significant in so many ways. First, Trump, 74, seeking his second term in office, became the third president of the United States to be impeached by the House of Representatives last year (December) and faced removal by the Senate. Two articles of impeachment – abuse of power and obstruction of Congress – had to do Trump wrongly using our government to solicit election assistance from Ukraine in the form of investigations to discredit his Democratic political rivals. The Republican-controlled Senate refused to interview key witnesses and acquitted Trump of the charges in February 2020 and he remained in office.

In addition, if Biden,77, is elected, his partner on the Democratic ticket, U.S. Senator Kamala Harris, will become the first woman elected as Vice President. Born in 1964 to a Jamaican father and an Indian mother, Harris spent most of her younger years in California and previously worked as the state’s attorney general.