April Ling sat down to fill out her mail-in ballot at her Brandon home and found it already sealed tight, the envelope glued shut by Florida's humidity before she or her husband had a chance to vote. The couple's ballots were sealed by moisture rather than by their own hand, leaving Ling scrambling for a way to cast a vote that still had to reach the Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections office before the deadline.
Ling called the county elections office for guidance, and according to WFLA, staff there advised her to use a knife to carefully unseal the envelope and then tape it closed again before mailing it back. Ling tried exactly that, but the paper began tearing about three-quarters of the way through the process. “It was completely sealed all the way,” she said, and she stopped cutting once she worried a torn ballot might not be counted at all.
A Known but Uncommon Problem
A spokesperson for the Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections said the issue is uncommon but does happen, and the office pointed Ling toward a website where voters can request a replacement ballot rather than attempt repairs themselves. Ling said Florida's elections website indicated the situation had occurred before, and that the state's proposed solution was to request another mail-in ballot rather than try to modify a sealed envelope.
That guidance lines up with what election offices elsewhere in the state tell voters. The Florida Division of Elections lists an envelope sealed shut by humidity as a valid reason to request a replacement ballot. Yet county election offices in Palm Beach, Indian River, and Lee counties have told voters they can carefully slit a pre-sealed envelope open, insert the ballot, sign the certificate, and reseal it with clear tape, according to Palm Beach County Elections. The two pieces of advice point in different directions, and it's the second approach that Hillsborough's own office gave Ling by phone before her envelope tore.
Taping a Ballot Does Not Void It
Whichever method a voter ends up using, Florida law is clear that a taped or resealed envelope does not disqualify a ballot. Under Florida Statute § 101.68, a vote-by-mail ballot cannot be declared illegal or rejected simply because the voter's signature on the certificate does not cross the seal of the return envelope, meaning the critical requirement is a signature that matches the voter's record on file rather than the physical condition of the envelope flap. Hillsborough County guidelines also allow registered voters to receive up to two replacement ballots per election cycle, as long as the original has not yet been mailed, dropped in a secure box, or scanned as cast.
This isn't the first time Central Florida's climate has interfered with the mail. During the October 2020 election cycle, elections officials in neighboring Polk County reported widespread instances of vote-by-mail return envelopes prematurely sealing shut due to heat and humidity, a recurring seasonal hazard tied to water-soluble envelope glue reacting to moisture in mailboxes and delivery trucks.
A Shrinking Pool of Mail Voters Facing a Hard Deadline
The timing adds pressure to an already shrinking pool of mail voters. Under changes enacted through Senate Bill 90 in 2021, vote-by-mail ballot requests expire after each general election cycle, requiring voters to request ballots again rather than re-register to vote. The shift has reshaped participation in Hillsborough County, where active vote-by-mail requests fell from roughly 200,000 in 2024 to under 79,000 by May, according to WUSF, which also reported that election officials noted the automatic expirations caused voter confusion across the region. Mail voting still matters enormously locally: about 29 percent of Hillsborough County voters cast ballots by mail in the 2024 general election, and as of this fall, county voters had requested 111,000 mail-in ballots that had not yet been returned.
Statewide, Florida voters have sent in nearly 1 million mail-in ballots so far this cycle, underscoring how many people could run into the same sealed-envelope problem Ling did. Florida election law requires every vote-by-mail ballot to physically reach the Supervisor of Elections office by 7:00 p.m. local time on Election Day, since postmarks do not count toward the deadline. That rule is especially unforgiving for anyone requesting a replacement late, since Ling was told her new ballot could take up to five business days to arrive. Mail-in ballot requests must be submitted by Thursday, October 22, 2026.
Her Message to Other Voters
Ling ultimately requested a new ballot rather than risk mailing in a torn one, and she visited News Channel 8 to warn other voters about what happened to her. She said every vote counts and urged people to avoid mailing back a compromised envelope rather than gamble on whether it would be accepted. For voters who find their own envelope humidity-sealed in the coming weeks, state guidance allows them to request a replacement ballot, while Hillsborough County staff advised Ling by phone to open and reseal hers with a knife and tape.
