Official ballots are by precinct · Primary August 18, 2026 · General November 3, 2026
How to read a Florida sample ballot (precinct, not ZIP)
Our ZIP box is a convenience. We’re glad you used it. Your legal ballot is still a precinct style built from your full home address. This page is how we pull that style from the Supervisor of Elections (SOE) and read it so you don’t vote the neighbor’s school-board race — or miss the one that’s actually yours. Civic companion: how to vote in the 2026 primary.
Precinct vs ZIP — why the ZIP guide cannot finish the job
A Florida ZIP code is a postal route. A precinct is a slice of streets assigned to one polling place and one mix of districts. Inside one ZIP you can find two U.S. House seats (lines moved for 2026), two county-commission districts, two school-board districts, and different cities. Our tool estimates county and, when we have hints, possible House districts. It then shows statewide races plus the deep local fields we researched for that county. It cannot honestly say “this is your District 3 school-board ballot” from five digits.
If you only use ZIP, you’ll see extra names — other districts in the same county — and you may under-weight the one seat you actually vote. We’ve all done some version of that. The sample ballot deletes the extras. Use both: official style first, values scores second.
Open the official SOE tool
- Find your county office in the Florida Division of Elections SOE directory. Large-county examples: Orange — voteorangefl.gov, Miami-Dade, Hillsborough, Broward, Duval, Palm Beach, Pinellas, Brevard.
- Look for “sample ballot,” “voter lookup,” or “my voter information.”
- Enter the full address as registered: house number, street, city, ZIP. Apartment or lot numbers matter. A rural route or new subdivision that isn’t in the file yet is a reason to call the SOE, not to guess.
- Download or print the PDF. Note the precinct number, polling place, and the party style (Republican, Democratic, or NPA / nonpartisan).
State hub: dos.fl.gov/elections. Registration check: registertovoteflorida.gov.
How to read the closed-primary lines
An August sample ballot is usually headed by party. If you’re Republican, the first big block is Republican primary — Governor, U.S. Senate special, partisan cabinet or legislative seats that are actually contested, partisan county offices. If you’re Democratic, you get the Democratic block. If you’re NPA, that block is missing or limited to universal-primary exceptions. That’s not a printing error. It’s Florida’s closed primary.
When you compare our governor essay (Fishback, Donalds, Renner, Collins) to an NPA sample ballot and those names are absent, the SOE is correct. Those names belong to the Republican style. When you compare our Orange mayor essay (Messina vs the field) to any Orange style and those names are present, that’s because the office is nonpartisan.
Unopposed partisan races may not print at all in August. Florida Attorney General is the 2026 cabinet example on our county pages: party primaries canceled, so the names may wait until November. Don’t assume a missing cabinet line means you lost the right to vote for AG later.
Nonpartisan, judicial, and school board
After (or instead of) the party block you’ll see offices with no R/D column: school board, many circuit and county judges, some mayors, soil and water, special districts. These are the races NPA voters still decide in August. They can also be majority-or-runoff offices: if no one hits 50 percent, the top two continue to November 3. Orange County mayor is written that way. Some school-board seats can end in August if someone clears a majority.
District labels matter. “School Board District 2” is not “School Board Chair” and not District 4. If our county guide lists several board seats, your PDF should show only the one (or the countywide chair) assigned to your precinct. Crossing that off in pen on a printed sample ballot is a good habit before you stand in line.
Measures and the November style
The August primary was mostly nominations. Most certified statewide amendments appear on the November 3, 2026 general style, not August. Local tax or charter questions can appear on either date — only the PDF knows. When general-election sample ballots post, pull a new one. Don’t reuse the August PDF in November. Party nominees will have changed; amendments will have appeared; runoff pairs may have replaced a four-person nonpartisan field.
Matching the PDF to JesusVoter without getting lost
- Write down every office title and every name on your style.
- Open the interactive guide, enter your ZIP or county, and search those names — not the entire county dump.
- Read the three bars (45 / 35 / 20) and the letter grade. Method: how we score.
- Treat Trump / DeSantis / Musk / MAHA as filters, not bonus points (badge rules).
- If a name is on the PDF and missing or F-watermarked in our guide, the PDF still governs. Email hello@jesusvoter.com with a public source if you want us to look.
Common mistakes
- Using only a ZIP. You’ll rehearse the wrong district races.
- Using a spouse’s or old address. Ballot styles follow the registration address.
- Assuming NPA sees the governor primary. Closed primary. Details: church voters and party lines.
- Mailing a ballot at the last minute. Florida counts received by Election Day, not a Tuesday postmark.
- Treating our guide as the legal list. We’re independent editorial. About: About.
Deep county HTML guides (named races, still not official ballots) include Orange, Miami-Dade, Hillsborough, Broward, Duval, Palm Beach, Pinellas, and Brevard. All 67: county index.