Today is Election Day in part of Palm Beach County. There’s only one contest on the Dec. 9 ballot: a special election to fill a vacancy in the Florida House of Representatives.
Democrat Rob Long and Republican Maria Zack are competing to fill the vacancy created by the death in July of state Rep. Joe Casello.
A third candidate, Karen Yeh, is on the ballot, running with no party affiliation.
The winner will get right to work. The 2026 Florida legislative session begins in five weeks.
When, where and how?
The Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Office said 53 neighborhood polling places would be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Election Day.
Anyone who is in line at 7 p.m. is allowed to vote.
Unlike during early voting, people must vote in their assigned polling place on Election Day.
A voter must have a current, valid photo ID with a signature. The most common are Florida driver’s licenses or state ID cards. Many other forms of ID, including passports, are accepted. If the photo ID doesn’t have a voter’s signature, the person will have to show another ID with a signature.
A voter identification card — which many people call a voter registration card — isn’t needed, and isn’t accepted as a form of identification at a polling place.
Who can vote
Registered voters who live in Florida House District 90 can vote in the special election.
District 90 is bordered by Hypoluxo Road in the north, Military Trail on the west (with a couple of pockets west of Military), the Delray Beach-Boca Raton border on the South and the Atlantic Ocean on the east.
It includes all or parts of Boynton Beach, Delray Beach, Briny Breezes, Golf, Gulf Stream and Ocean Ridge.
Mail ballots
People who have requested and received mail ballots need to return them in person unless they plan to vote at an Election Day polling place.
Florida has a strict deadline for returning vote-by-mail ballots. They must be back at the county elections office by 7 p.m. on Election Day, Dec. 9. Postmarks don’t count.
In every election there are ballots that arrive late and can’t be counted under Florida law. In close elections there often have been enough uncounted ballots to potentially change the results.
People can return their mail ballots until 7 p.m. at the Supervisor of Elections Office headquarters near West Palm Beach or until 5 p.m. at a branch office.
Someone who requests and receives a mail ballot is not required to use it. Voters can still vote in their neighborhood polling stations on Election Day. Safeguards are in place to prevent someone from voting more than once.
Low turnout
Turnout in special elections is usually ultra-low, which means a relatively small number of voters can determine the outcome.
And the District 90 special election comes during an off year — between Thanksgiving in November and Hanukkah and Christmas in December — when voting isn’t at the forefront of many people’s minds.
The House District 90 election fits that pattern.
The Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Office shows 102,904 active registered Republican voters in the district.
Just 1,906 people voted early, the Elections Office reported. In-person early voting ended Sunday.
Another 6,332 vote-by-mail ballots had been received in the elections office by mid-afternoon Monday.
As of Monday afternoon, turnout was 8%.
Leans Democratic
The district leans Democratic, but the contest could be competitive.
The 90th District’s registered voters are 39.3% Democratic, 30.5% Republican, 29.3% no party affiliation independent, with the rest split among various minor parties. In the 2024 presidential election, Democrat Kamala Harris won 54.6% of the vote in District 90 and Republican Trump received 44.2%, according to an analysis by Democratic data analyst Matthew Isbell.
Low voter turnout in special elections like the District 90 contest makes the outcome trickier to predict since a small number of voters can have a huge impact.
Information
People can check to see if they are registered to vote, live in the 90th District, and check polling place locations online at votepalmbeach.gov or by calling 561-656-6200.
