Opinion: Will this year’s primary election be compromised?

In Summary:

Jeannie Economos believes that Orange County’s move away from automatically mailing paper sample ballots creates barriers for many elderly, low-income, rural, and technology-limited voters. She says many longtime voters rely on printed sample ballots to identify candidates, understand their districts, and prepare before entering the voting booth. Economos calls on residents to contact the Orange County Supervisor of Elections and request that paper sample ballots once again be mailed to all registered voters.

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The 2026 primary elections are just around the corner—August 18, to be exact. Have you received a sample ballot in the mail? Not likely, because this year, for the first time in many decades, the Orange County Supervisor of Elections has "elected" not to mail paper sample ballots for the primary election. I know because I have called the office at least five times in the last two weeks. Instead, they sent out a mailing with a QR code that people can scan to find the list of candidates. 

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That's great for people who have a smartphone and are used to using QR codes. 

That is not so good if: 

• You use a flip phone and/or a landline and have little to no experience using the internet to look up candidates or access the Supervisor of Elections' office. • You are elderly and don't have a smartphone, or don't know how to use it except to answer phone calls, or don't know how to scan a QR code. 
• You don't have a smartphone or a computer, and you certainly don't have a printer to print out a sample ballot so you can learn who the candidates are and what offices they are running for. 
• You are elderly and do not know what a QR code is—as was true for my neighbor,  who called me this week and told me she had never heard of a QR code. (She is 85  years old.) 
• You do not have a computer to look up the phone number for the Supervisor of  Elections if you lost the mailing they sent, and we no longer have the old-fashioned telephone directories people once used to look up phone numbers. 
• You do not know that you can call the Supervisor of Elections and ask them to mail you a paper sample ballot. 
• You have been voting for decades and have always received a paper sample ballot in the mail, and you are sitting at home waiting for one to arrive. 
• You don't know who to vote for or what districts you are in because you rely on your paper sample ballot for information about your districts and the candidates. 

This decision by the Orange County Supervisor of Elections can—and very likely will— disfranchise hundreds, if not thousands, of registered voters in Orange County. I know because I work with some of them—people who live in the more rural areas of the county and who do not have ready access to technology or transportation, and who may be disabled. I work primarily with the community of elderly, low-income African  American/Black residents in northwest Orange County, including Apopka, Zellwood,  Plymouth, and the Sorrento area. I have worked with many of these community members for close to 30 years. 

Many, if not most, of them take their printed sample ballots into the voting booth with them to remind themselves of who they planned to vote for. These elderly Black community members are often the very people who lived through Jim Crow (I have heard their stories),  struggled in the Civil Rights Movement, and continue to encourage—even insist—that the younger generation get out and vote because they remember the fight for equal access to the ballot box. 

It is not just minority voters who will be disadvantaged. Lower-income and elderly White voters will encounter many of the same difficulties. Why make voting harder for people who want to vote? 

What a terrible disservice it would be if they themselves were discouraged from voting because they lacked access to a paper sample ballot. 

The Supervisor of Elections office told me I could print out ballots myself and give them to people. The problem is that I don't know, nor do I have access to—or the time to reach—all of the registered voters in the county who may need one. In addition, I would have to determine each person's district to provide the correct sample ballot. That was a totally impractical and vacuous response from the Supervisor of Elections office. 

Voting is a precious and revered right of all United States citizens. Our local, state, and national governments encourage all eligible citizens to get out and vote. It is election season, and all forms of news media—traditional, social, and digital—are covering the elections, while candidates are sending out mailers asking for your vote. 

The last thing we need is for people to be disenfranchised by our own Supervisor of  Elections office. To my knowledge, no one was forewarned about this change. This is a disservice to the voters of our county. 

Call the Supervisor of Elections Office today and demand that they mail out paper Sample  Ballots to all registered voters - 407-836-2070. 

Key Points:

• The opinion argues Orange County's new QR-code mailing replaces a decades-long practice of automatically mailing paper sample ballots.
• Economos says the change disproportionately affects elderly, rural, disabled and lower-income voters who may lack access to smartphones, computers or printers.
• She writes that many longtime voters bring printed sample ballots into the voting booth as a guide.
• The commentary contends the policy could discourage voter participation and disproportionately affect communities with limited access to technology.
• Economos urges the Supervisor of Elections to resume mailing paper sample ballots to every registered voter before future elections.

Jeannie Economos is the Pesticide Safety and Environmental Health Project Coordinator of the Farmworker Association of Florida. She began in 1995 as a volunteer and has been involved - as staff and/or volunteer - ever since.  The work transformed her life into a lifelong commitment to farmworker justice.  The community of farmworkers in the Apopka area is near and dear to her heart and will be forever.