Be sure to do this if you’re renewing your Florida driver’s license

It’s been less than two years since a new Florida law went into effect that assigned drivers new ID numbers when they renew their licenses.

But as midterms approach, it’s unclear if this seemingly innocuous bureaucratic maneuver will cause voter confusion relating to mail ballots and petitions.

“It’s definitely an issue, but more of a bureaucratic glitch than anything else,” said Brad Ashwell, Florida state director for All Voting is Local. “I thought we’d gotten the word out about it, but we’re hearing that it’s a growing concern in some counties. It’s another hurdle that people have to deal with when it comes to voting by mail.”

The issue is that a new online request for a mail ballot won’t be approved if the driver’s license number doesn’t match what the elections office has on file. Voters must use either their driver’s license number or the last four digits of their Social Security number to verify their request for a mail ballot.

Similarly, voters who sign onto a petition could get their petition tossed if there’s a disparity in the driver’s license number.

Upon getting denied the mail ballot request or alerted about the rejected petition, voters can provide the new driver’s license number to the elections office.

Voters have plenty of time to get this done. Mail ballots won’t go out for the Aug. 18 primary for another two months. Candidates still are qualifying to run.

But voting rights groups say mismatched driver IDs are another hoop that voters must jump through to get a mail ballot.

“It makes things more complicated,” said Jessica Lowe-Minor, president of the League of Women Voters of Florida. “Voters may be surprised when they request a mail ballot and are denied.”

Blame much of the uncertainty on a legislative double whammy.

In 2021, Florida’s GOP-controlled Legislature passed a voting bill that addressed the false premise that elections were rife with fraud.

In addition to creating an election crimes office and tougher penalties for fraud, the new law required that voters wanting a mail ballot must request one every election cycle. In addition, to receive a ballot by mail, voters must provide a Florida driver’s license number, state identification card number, or the last four digits of their Social Security number.

Because the voter registration form asks for the driver’s license first, many voters only provide that, even though other forms of ID are accepted.

What complicates this form of identification is what happened the following year. The Legislature passed a bill that required that people be assigned a new driver’s license number upon renewal rather than letting them retain their existing number. Lawmakers said swapping out IDs was necessary to better prevent identity theft and fraud.

But if an elections office has that old driver’s license in the voter registration file, then a new request for a mail ballot cannot be verified online if the driver recently renewed their driver’s license but didn’t provide their new driver ID.

It’s up to a separate agency, the tax collector offices processing the drivers’ licenses, to remind applicants that they should update their voter information at their elections office.

“It’s not a good system,” said Mike Fasano, Pasco County’s tax collector. “If our system is requiring that someone gets a new driver’s license number every time they renew, it should be the state that updates the other agencies that have that old number on file. If we leave it to the voter, there are some who may not know what to do. I don’t want to impede in any way someone from requesting a mail ballot. This is concerning.”

The new driver’s license number requirement didn’t go into effect until July 2024. Even though that was a presidential election year, only a small percentage of voters would have had new driver IDs by then. Now, after nearly two years of drivers getting their licenses renewed, the population of drivers likely to encounter the issue this year is higher.

One such voter is Kathleen Tobin, a St. Petersburg resident who last week renewed her license at the Pinellas County Tax Collector’s Office at the 34th Street N office.

A clerk told Tobin that she only needed to update her voter registration information if she was changing parties or had moved. Updating her voting information was a simple matter of checking a box on the license renewal, but the clerk told Tobin it wasn’t necessary.

Tobin knew better. She volunteers at a voting rights group. She’s also a journalist with 30 years experience who retired recently from the Poynter Institute for Media Studies, which owns the Tampa Bay Times.

She pressed the employee to check with the Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections Office. Its website reminds voters to update their information when they renew. Sure enough, when the employee checked online, she saw that Tobin was right.

“How is it possible that the proper information has still not gotten to employees who work in the Tax Collector’s Office and renew driver’s licenses?” Tobin said. “Many Pinellas residents updating their drivers’ licenses won’t know to question the Tax Collector’s Office on this point.”

Adam Ross, the Pinellas County tax collector, said he’s spoken with his employees about this incident and will make sure they understand how to instruct drivers getting their renewals. He said he’ll also put signs in the lobby encouraging drivers to update their voter registration.

Ross said he’ll also try to better share license updates with the Supervisor of Elections Office. Lawmakers this year passed a requirement that new driver IDs are shared automatically with the state elections office, but that doesn’t go into effect until January 2027.

Until then, elections officials will be warning voters to update their information.

Last year, Pinellas sent postcards to 238,000 voters and an email to another 87,000 telling them to renew their requests for mail ballots.

So far, the office has 150,000 mail ballot requests. That’s about half of what it usually has at this time.

This story was originally published May 19, 2026 at 12:39 PM with the headline "Be sure to do this if you’re renewing your Florida driver’s license."