Learn more about how to exercise your voting rights, resist voter intimidation efforts, and access disability-related accommodations and language assist at the polls. For help at the polls, call the not-partisan Ballot Protection Hotline at one-866-OUR-VOTE.

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Collage of images that represent voting discrimination

I demand to register to vote

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States have different voter registration deadlines and requirements, so make sure you are registered well in advance of Election Solar day. Voter registration deadlines vary and some states let individuals to register for the first fourth dimension and cast ballots on Election Day.

What to exercise

  • Check your registration status at Can I Vote.
  • If you lot are not registered to vote, go to vote.gov to notice your options. This link volition provide information well-nigh your registration options, which may include online registration.

I need to notice my polling identify

Every state offers options to vote in-person on Election Solar day, fifty-fifty those that primarily conduct elections by mail.

What to exercise

  • Find your polling place or vote eye and its hours of operation.
  • Make a plan for Election Mean solar day: When and where volition y'all bandage your vote, and how will you get there?

I'grand not sure what to bring to the polls

Your state may require you to bring an ID or bring documents to evidence your residence, especially if you're voting for the first time. Make certain y'all're prepared.

What to do

  • Learn what materials you lot'll need to bring with you to the polling place on Election Twenty-four hour period.

I desire to vote earlier Election Day

Your rights

  • If you cannot vote in-person on Ballot Day, you lot may exist able to vote early on or past absentee vote-past-mail ballot.
  • Some states allow any voter to vote absentee; others have stricter requirements.

What to do

  • Acquire about your options to exercise absentee or early on voting in your state.
  • Continue in mind that the borderline to request an absentee ballot may be earlier Ballot Day.

What are my general rights on Ballot Day?

Your rights

  • If the polls close while you're still in line, stay in line – you accept the right to vote.
  • If you brand a error on your ballot, ask for a new one.
  • If the machines are downward at your polling place, enquire for a paper ballot.
  • If y'all see any issues or have questions on Ballot Mean solar day, telephone call the Ballot Protection Hotline:
    • English: 1-866-OUR-VOTE / 1-866-687-8683
    • Castilian: 1-888-VE-Y-VOTA / ane-888-839-8682
    • Arabic: ane-844-YALLA-US / 1-844-925-5287
    • For Bengali, Cantonese, Hindi, Urdu, Korean, Mandarin, Tagalog, or Vietnamese: 1-888-274-8683

The poll worker says my name is non on the list of registered voters

Your rights

  • Voters are entitled to a provisional election, even if they aren't in the poll book.
  • Afterwards Election 24-hour interval, election officials must investigate whether you are qualified to vote and registered. If you are qualified and registered, they will count your provisional ballot.

What to do

  • Ask the poll worker to double check for your proper name on the list of registered voters. Make sure to spell your name out for the poll worker.
  • If your name is not on the list, enquire if in that location is a supplemental list of voters.
  • If the poll worker yet cannot find your name, confirm that you are at the right polling place:
    • Request that the poll workers check a statewide arrangement (if one is bachelor) to come across if you are registered to vote at a unlike polling place.
    • If the poll worker does not accept access to a statewide system, inquire them to call the master election office.
    • You lot tin can also telephone call 1-866-OUR-VOTE and ask for help verifying your proper polling place.
    • If you are registered at a different location, in about instances you volition have to travel to that location to bandage a regular ballot.
  • If the poll worker still cannot find your name or if you cannot travel to the right polling place, inquire for a provisional ballot.

Additional information

  • If you are turned away or denied a provisional ballot, phone call the Election Protection Hotline at 1-866-OUR-VOTE or 1-888-VE-Y-VOTA (en Español).
  • Report your feel to local election officials.

I am a voter with a disability

Your rights

  • Under federal law, all polling places for federal elections must exist fully accessible to older adults and voters with disabilities. Simply allowing curbside voting is non enough to see Americans with Disabilities Human action (ADA) accessibility requirements.
  • In federal elections, every polling place must have at to the lowest degree i voting arrangement that allows voters with disabilities to vote privately and independently. Unremarkably, this is a car that can read the ballot to you (for people with vision disabilities or dyslexia), and let you lot vote by pushing buttons (for people with mobility disabilities).
  • Under federal police force, voters with disabilities and voters who have difficulty reading or writing English have the right to receive in-person help at the polls from the person of their choice. This helper cannot be the voter's employer, an amanuensis of the voter'due south employer, or an amanuensis or officer of the voter's wedlock. The helper must respect the voter's privacy, not looking at the voter'southward ballot unless the voter asks them to do so.
  • Election officials (including poll workers) must make reasonable accommodations as needed to help you vote.
  • Election officials must provide you with help if it'southward possible for them to do so.
  • A voter with a mental disability cannot be turned away from the polls because a poll worker thinks they are not 'qualified' to vote.

What to do

  • You can bring a family member, friend, or some other person of your pick to assist y'all at the polls. Do not bring your employer, or an agent of your employer or union.
  • If you bring a person to assist y'all, let the poll workers know that when you check in. They may inquire you to swear under oath that you have a disability and that you have asked that person to help you. Your helper may also be required to sign a grade swearing that they did not tell you how to vote.
  • If there are long lines and you have a physical or mental health status or disability that makes it difficult for you to stand in line, tell a poll worker.
  • Tell election officials what y'all need. For case, if it'south hard for you to stand, they should provide yous with a chair or a identify to sit while you wait. If the crowds or racket are hard for you, election officials can observe a quiet place for y'all to wait and call you when it's your turn to vote.
  • If you are not able to enter your polling place because the pathway to information technology is not fully accessible, inquire poll workers for curbside assistance. Also call 1-866-OUR-VOTE to written report the consequence.
  • If you accept difficulty using the materials provided to brand your ballot selections, review, or bandage your ballot, let a poll worker know and enquire for the assist you lot demand. Accessibility is the constabulary.
  • If you lot face any challenges in voting privately and independently or are unable to cast your vote, written report the problem to the Election Protection hotline at i-866-OUR-VOTE. Trained attorneys can assist you and make sure that other voters do not experience the same trouble.

     Additional information

  • Find detailed voting guides at Bazelon Eye for Mental Health Police
  • For a toolkit on voting with a inability, visit the Autistic Self Advocacy Network.
  • Visit SABE's GoVoter Project for attainable trainings on how to exercise your rights equally a voter with a disability.
  • Take a class on polling identify accessibility requirements at the Rocky Mountain ADA Middle.
  • For voting in formation in American Sign Language, visit SignVote.

I speak English less than "very well"

Your rights

  • Under federal law, voters who accept difficulty reading or writing English may receive in-person assistance at the polls from the person of their pick. This person cannot exist the voter's employer, an agent of the voter's employer, or an agent or officer of the voter'due south union.
  • Counties covered past Section 203 of the Voting Rights Human action are required to provide bilingual assistance to voters in specific languages. This means that they must provide poll workers who speak certain languages, and make all ballot materials and election-related information available in those languages. Cheque whether your county is required to provide bilingual election aid in a language you speak.

What to do

  • You can bring a family unit fellow member, friend, or other person of your choice to assist y'all at the polls. Practise non bring your employer, or an agent of your employer or wedlock.
  • If you lot live in a county that's required to provide bilingual voting assistance for a linguistic communication you speak, y'all can request oral assistance from a bilingual poll worker and ask for voting materials, such as a ballot, in that language.
  • If you have trouble voting due to lack of English fluency, call one of these hotlines:
    • Spanish: one-888-VE-Y-VOTA / one-888-839-8682
    • Arabic: 1-844-YALLA-US / 1-844-925-5287
    • English: i-866-OUR-VOTE / one-866-687-8683.
    • Bengali, Cantonese, Hindi, Urdu, Korean, Mandarin, Tagalog, Vietnamese): one-888-API-VOTE / i-888-274-8683

Additional information

  • For detailed guidance on bilingual voting help, visit Asian Americans Advancing Justice.

Someone is interfering with my correct to vote

Examples of voter intimidation

  • Aggressively questioning voters about their citizenship, criminal record, or other qualifications to vote.
  • Falsely representing oneself as an elections official.
  • Displaying false or misleading signs about voter fraud and related criminal penalties.
  • Other forms of harassment, peculiarly harassment targeting not-English speakers and voters of colour.
  • Spreading faux information about voter requirements.
    • You lot practice not need to speak English language to vote, in any state.
    • You exercise non need to pass a test to vote, in any state.
    • Some states do not require voters to present photo identification.

Your rights

  • It'due south illegal to intimidate voters and a federal law-breaking to "intimidate, threaten, [or] coerce … whatever other person for the purpose of interfering with the right of [that] other person to vote or to vote as he may choose."

What to do if y'all experience voter intimidation

  • In many states, yous can give a sworn statement to the poll worker that you satisfy the qualifications to vote in your state, and then proceed to cast a ballot.
  • Report intimidation to the Election Protection Hotline at 1-866-OUR-VOTE or 1-888-VE-Y-VOTA (en Español).
  • Report intimidation to your local ballot officials. Their offices volition exist open on Election Solar day.