Pallets of mail ballots on their way to Hillsborough County voters

TAMPA, Fla. - The Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections Office sent out 355,000 mail-in ballots to voters Thursday. Workers loaded up pallets of them to be sent off to the post office.

But if you have not requested your mail-in ballot, it’s not too late.

Craig Latimer, Hillsborough County‘s elections supervisor says Floridians have until 10 days before the election -- October 24 -- to request their mail-in ballot. If you get a ballot, you have several options on how to return it.

First, you could drop it off at your county supervisor of elections office, or drop it in the county's designated drop box at the early voting sites. Each county is different, so be sure to check yours.

Voting in Florida 2020: Tampa Bay area election guide

Or, of course, you could just send it in the mail. Latimer says his team is expecting a surge of mail-in ballots this year.

He explained what the ballot looks like. 

“It is a two-page ballot – that will then go into the secrecy sleeve. All of that will then go into the return envelope, which will then come back to my office,” Latimer said. “There’s optional information on the back, to fill out after they sign and date it.and then most importantly, they get their ‘I Voted by Mail’ sticker, so they can wear that proudly.”

Governor Ron DeSantis is allowing supervisors across the state to start counting mail-in ballots upon completion of quality control testing. That means supervisors like Latimer could start counting ballots 27 to 30 days ahead of election day, as opposed to the previous number of days, which was 22.

But remember, the polls will close in Florida on November 3 at 7 p.m. so even if you use a mail-in ballot and want to drop it off in-person, you will need to have it at your supervisor of elections office no later than 7 p.m. on Election Day.