About Half The States Require That One Be Registered How Many Days In Advance Of An Election?

How to vote in an election — from registering to where and how you can cast your ballot.

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Every ballot year, people wonder whether their votes matter. And withal, every ballot year, important races are decided past the narrowest of margins.

In 2018, 88 seats for statewide legislatures were decided past less than half a per centum point; 16 races were decided past 10 votes or fewer; 2 were decided by a single vote.

There was one 2017 contest that was tied after a recount and courtroom hearing. State law said the winner would be determined at random. In that case, the name was plucked from a blueish glass bowl: a selection that adamant control of an entire body of government for a state with eight million people.

If only one more person had voted, the people could have decided the outcome themselves.

Life Kit is here to help you figure out how to vote.

1. Become registered to vote. Do information technology early and update your information with your local elections role if you move.

Most voters don't starting time thinking about registration until Election Mean solar day approaches, which is exactly when anybody else is thinking virtually information technology. Election officials can be inundated so, or a fundamental deadline may have passed.

Since voting is run by states and besides by local governments similar counties and townships, the rules are different everywhere. Some states let registration on the twenty-four hour period of an ballot; others require yous to annals weeks in advance.

If you're going to be 18 years old on Election Twenty-four hour period, you should fill out a voter registration class as soon as possible. Even today.

There are lots of websites that can get you to the correct place to annals once you tell them where yous live; for instance, Vote.org. The Washington Post has also congenital a handy tool to help.

The last important note is that y'all need to change your registration every time yous motion. Even if you call back you're already registered correctly, you can double-check information technology today.

two. Get informed and make sure the data you're finding online most your candidates and voting rules is legit.

Y'all can beginning with your local public radio station or newspaper. There are besides nonprofits like the League of Women voters that put out candidate guides. Just a look at a candidate's official website or fifty-fifty a social media account like Instagram can tell you a lot nearly candidates' priorities and the communities they care almost.

Voting is non a test! You can bring notes or a voter guide with y'all to the polls on Election Twenty-four hour period so you don't have to memorize everything.

Another hot tip: If you live in the U.S., you can't vote over the phone or by text in any U.Southward. election, and anyone who says otherwise is lying.

3. Go vote! Make certain you plan ahead — know where, when and how yous're going to vote. Don't look until the final infinitesimal.

Voting is unlike all across the country, but in that location are 3 bones means to cast a election: in person on Election Day; in person before Election Day; and by mail service.

The No. 1 question ballot officials hear around election fourth dimension is, "Where do I vote?" There are a number of good websites that will tell yous where your polling identify is if you plug in your address. Endeavour Vote.org, Stone the Vote or the National Association of Secretaries of Country.

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Vote past mail and absentee ballot

More and more than states are making voting by post easier this year due to COVID-19.

In a scattering of states, every registered voter will get mailed a election, and many other states allow you to request a mail-in election without an excuse. If you do accept an excuse for why you can't vote in person, fifty-fifty more than states will permit you to request an absentee or mail service-in election.

Check out the rules for absentee and mail-in voting in each state here. If mail service-in voting is the best option for you, cheque out this guide -- and request your mail-in election as soon every bit you tin.

A couple of things to watch out for with vote-by-postal service ballots:

The biggest one is deadlines. In some states your ballot has to arrive by a certain appointment; in others, it has to exist postmarked by a certain appointment. Bank check your country rules when you get your ballot.
Some states as well have signature lucifer rules for your mail-in election, where workers will cheque to make sure your signature on the ballot matches the signature they take on file, which could have been from many years ago. If yous're worried about your signature, you can follow upwards with your elections supervisor to brand certain it'southward fine.

Voting at an early-voting site

More than half of states allow voting before Ballot 24-hour interval. It's a way for people who might accept inflexible hours or another reason to vote when it'due south convenient for them. If you vote early, information technology counts simply the same.

The big difference even in states that allow early voting is the number of days the early-voting sites are open, so check with your country's secretarial assistant of state website.

Voting in person on Election Day

Plan ahead for how and when you'll become to the polling station. Volition yous bulldoze? Take the bus? Go before work? At lunch? On your fashion to the gym?
Vesture your mask and be mindful of the distance between you and other voters or poll workers. They're all trying to stay safe too.
Precincts are often the most crowded showtime affair in the morning and at the stop of the day. And then if it'southward possible, try to go in the middle of the day.
You may need identification. Some states crave photo ID. These laws accept been changing a lot in contempo years, then it'southward worth double-checking. Two websites with proficient information are Ballotpedia and the National Council of Country Legislatures.
One time you lot're signed in to your polling place, you're going to bandage a ballot, either with paper and a pen or on an electronic auto. Read the instructions, and brand sure you fill out the ballot correctly. "If it's an oval, fill it out completely. If it's an arrow, make certain that it's a direct line," says Jocelyn Benson, Michigan's secretary of country. If you lot don't, you run the run a risk of having your vote thrown out.

4. Have the voter hotline number 866-OUR-VOTE burned into your brain or saved in your phone.

That mode if something happens, or if y'all run across something sketchy, you have a resource to go to. At that place might be times when things go wrong. A poll worker says you're non registered. You lot can't physically access your polling infinite because there'south no wheelchair ramp. Someone is harassing people at your polling place.

That telephone number — 866-687-8683 — may be your No. one resource. It'southward the Lawyer's Committee for Ceremonious Rights Under Law hotline for anyone with any sort of voting question or problem. The committee also has hotlines for different languages and field programs in xxx different states.

If for whatever reason you show up at your polling identify and you aren't on the rolls, or even if you testify upwards and you don't have the proper ID to vote, y'all'll usually be asked to vote with a provisional ballot.

This is a ballot that is exactly what it sounds like: Something needs to be worked out before your vote counts. You might accept to bring a document to your election official within a certain fourth dimension flow, or your election supervisor might accept to double-check that you really are registered.

Simply it does not mean your vote won't count.

Some other problem that gets a lot of media attention is voter intimidation: Someone is actually at a polling place harassing people trying to vote.

This behavior is illegal everywhere.

You can call the lawyers committee hotline to report this sort of behavior, or you can file a complaint with the Justice Department.

Voting should be like shooting fish in a barrel and accessible, and anyone who is making voting hard is in the wrong.

This episode originally ran in October 2019. Yous can mind to that sound here.

Nosotros'd love to hear from you. Leave united states of america a voicemail at 202-216-9823, or email us at LifeKit@npr.org .

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