Florida election recount: How to check on whether your vote was counted

Sara Marino | Treasure Coast Newspapers

Show Caption Hide Caption Florida recounts explained in less than 60 seconds Senator Bill Nelson has called for a recount. Do the vote margins in his race against Rick Scott call for one?

With voting recounts in full swing, you might be worried that your ballot got lost in the action of it all. Here's how you can check to make sure your vote was counted.

In Florida there are three ways residents can vote: with mail-in ballots, using a provisional ballot or by voting in person. You can check to see if your vote was counted online only with mail-in ballots.

Mail-in ballots

To check to see if your mail-in ballot was counted, you first have to visit the state's Division of Elections website.

Once you get to the website you have to input your full name as well as your date of birth. The website will take you to another page displaying your full name, address, voter identification number, party and more.

Florida recount updates: See the latest news in the state's ongoing drama

If you continue to scroll, you'll see a link called “Ballot and precinct information.” Once you click that link, it will take you to your county supervisor of elections website showing when your ballot was received by the elections office and whether it’s been counted.

More: Florida elections: Palm Beach County recount delays caused by old voting machines, supervisor says

Provisional ballots

Provisional ballots are used when a resident's eligibility to vote is under question for reasons such as they forgot to bring a proper form of identification with them.

With a provisional ballot, people fill out the ballot and are given a receipt saying how they can prove their eligibility to vote. The evidence is then presented to the supervisor of elections office by 5 p.m. the Thursday after the election.

More: St. Lucie County has fewer than 22,000 ballots left, expects to finish Wednesday

Residents who used provisional ballots should have been notified if their ballots were accepted.

More: Florida election recount: Candidates lose votes, margins barely change in Martin County

In-person voting

When it comes to voting in person, in most counties in Florida, there isn't a way to see if your vote was counted.

But in some counties, including Indian River, Martin and St. Lucie, by following the link from the Division of Elections website to your county supervisor of elections website, you'll see if you voted in the most recent election, as well as past elections.

Recounts were started for Florida's next U.S. senator, governor and commissioner of agricultural because of unofficial totals showing the races were within 0.5 percentage points, which is the threshold for a mandated machine recount.

More: Palm Beach County recount delays caused by old voting machines, supervisor says

Machine recounts involve feeding the more than 8.2 million ballots cast statewide in to high-speed tabulating machines to double-check the results reported to the state Saturday.

Votes for all counties throughout the state are due to the State Division of Elections by 3 p.m. Thursday.

More: Indian River County finishes counting 77,000 ballots