Mail ballots begin arriving in CD 1, CD 6 Special Elections

Voters in Florida’s 1st and 6th Congressional Districts should check their mailboxes, as ballots are beginning to arrive for Special Elections called to replace Matt Gaetz and Mike Waltz in Congress.

Gaetz already resigned his seat to pursue a now-aborted bid to become Attorney General during President-elect Donald Trump’s new administration.

Waltz is set to take over as National Security Adviser once Trump takes office. Waltz has also resigned, but that resignation doesn’t take effect until Inauguration Day, Jan. 20.

In late November, Florida formally called Special Elections to replace the two Congressmen. Both elections are running on similar timelines, save for CD 6’s qualifying period running one day later than CD 1’s earlier this month.

Mail ballots began being sent out for military members on Dec. 14. Other mail ballots were able to be sent out starting Dec. 19, though with holiday traffic many of those ballots only started arriving this week.

In the CD 1 contest to replace Gaetz, 16 candidates qualified, including 10 Republicans who will compete in a Jan. 28 Primary.

CD 6 saw a smaller field, with just nine candidates total and only three Republicans.

Both races, however, saw Trump endorsing his preferred candidate. In CD 1, that’s Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis. In CD 6, Trump is supporting state Sen. Randy Fine.

Republicans Aaron Dimmock, Kevin Gaffney, Jeff Macey, Greg Merk, John Mills, Jeff Peacock, Joel Rudman, Michael Dylan Thompson and Gene Valentino round out the GOP Primary field in CD 1.

Gay Valimont, who lost to Gaetz by double digits in November, is the lone Democrat running. Stephen Broden is running as a no-party candidate, while write-in candidates Richard Paul Dembinsky, Stanley Gray, Jonathan Green and Stan McDaniels also qualified.

In CD 6, Aaron Baker and Ehsan Joarder will challenge Fine for the Republican nomination. Purvi Bangdiwala, George Selmont and Josh Weil will compete for the Democratic nod. Andrew Parrott is running as a Libertarian. Randall Terry will run as a no-party candidate, while Chuck Sheridan qualified as a write-in.

Early voting for both Primary contests will run from Jan. 18-25.

For the General Election, overseas mail ballots will go out on Feb. 15, followed by domestic ballots on Feb. 20. Early voting will be available March 22-29. Election Day will take place on April 1.