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A way to vote while living in a nursing home or assisted living facility.

Key terms 

• Administrator: The person or persons who run an assisted living facility or nursing home. 
• Ballot: Where you say who you want to vote for 
• Assisted Living Facility (ALF): A place where people with disabilities live. It can be a large building, a small home, or a private home. People work there and help residents, including people with disabilities, living there. The facility provides housing, meals, and personal care services. The people who live there are usually not family members or related to the administrator.  
• Nursing Home: A place where people with disabilities live. It can be a building, private home, or institution.  Sometimes people think this is just for older people, but people with disabilities of all ages can live here. The staff who work here help the residents 24 hours a day with health and personal needs. The people who live here are usually not related to the owner or administrator. 
• Supervisor of Elections (SOE): The person who manages elections in each Florida county. Every county has a different Supervisor of Elections.  

What is Supervised Facility Voting?  

Supervised facility voting is a way that people living in nursing homes and assisted living facilities can vote. Staff from your county’s Supervisor of Elections office will come to your facility, bring you your ballot, assist you with voting, and take your ballot back with them to be counted. 

How Supervised Facility Voting Works

How to request to vote at your assisted living facility or nursing home.

• First, you have to be registered to vote-by-mail.  
  • Because you are not voting at a poll site, you must register to vote-by-mail.
  • When the election staff comes to do the supervised facility voting, they will bring you your ballot.  
  • If you are not registered to vote-by-mail, they will not bring you a ballot. 
  • You can check your registration status at RegisterToVoteFlorida.gov. 
• Next, you must tell the administrator who runs the nursing home or assisted living facility that you want to vote. 
  • At least five people (including yourself) must want to vote in order for supervised facility voting to happen.  Only when five people want to vote can your facility’s administrator ask the Supervisor of Elections to come to you with your ballots.  
  • It is important to tell the administrator where you live that you want to vote so they can contact the Supervisor of Elections as soon as possible. You need to ask them to come to where you live. Your administrator needs to contact the Supervisor of Elections office at least 4 weeks (28 days) before election day.  
  • The supervisor of elections and your facility's administrator will choose the date and time that the voting will happen.​​​​​​
• Voting Day
  • Staff from your county’s Supervisor of Elections office will come to your facility, bring your ballot, assist you with voting, and take your ballot back with them to be counted.  
  • At least two SOE staff members will be there. 
    • In a primary election, SOE staff members from the same political party being voted on will be there.  For example, in a Republican primary, Republican SOE staff members will come to do the supervised facility voting.  
    • In an election where there is more than one political party on the ballot, SOE staff will be from more than one political party. For example, in a general Presidential election, you could have Republican, Democrat, and Independent SOE staff come to do the supervised facility voting.  
  • The SOE staff will give you your ballot to vote. 
  • If you need help voting, the SOE staff can help you. Or, you can ask someone else you trust. 
  • If you decide not to vote that day or cannot vote that day, you still have the right to vote later with the assistant of your choice.  

Contacting Disability Rights Florida

If you live in a facility and you want to vote, but your facility’s administrator isn’t helping or allowing you to, please call Disability Rights Florida’s Voting Hotline at 877-352-7337.  

If you do not live in an assisted living facility or nursing home, you still have a right to vote.   

If you do not have Supervised Facility Voting services where you live, you must still be able to access a vote-by-mail ballot or get help getting to the polls.