Learn more about how to practice your voting rights, resist voter intimidation efforts, and access inability-related accommodations and language assistance at the polls. For help at the polls, call the non-partisan Election Protection Hotline at 1-866-OUR-VOTE.

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Collage of images that represent voting discrimination

I need to register to vote

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States have different voter registration deadlines and requirements, so brand sure you are registered well in advance of Election 24-hour interval. Voter registration deadlines vary and some states allow individuals to register for the showtime fourth dimension and cast ballots on Election Day.

What to do

  • Check your registration status at Tin I Vote.
  • If you lot are not registered to vote, go to vote.gov to find your options. This link will provide information most your registration options, which may include online registration.

I need to find my polling identify

Every land offers options to vote in-person on Election Twenty-four hour period, even those that primarily conduct elections by mail.

What to practise

  • Notice your polling place or vote center and its hours of operation.
  • Make a plan for Election 24-hour interval: When and where will you cast your vote, and how will you get there?

I'thou not sure what to bring to the polls

Your country may require you to bring an ID or bring documents to prove your residence, peculiarly if you're voting for the first time. Make sure y'all're prepared.

What to do

  • Learn what materials y'all'll demand to bring with you to the polling identify on Election Mean solar day.

I desire to vote before Ballot Twenty-four hours

Your rights

  • If you cannot vote in-person on Election Day, you may be able to vote early or past absentee vote-by-postal service ballot.
  • Some states allow any voter to vote absentee; others have stricter requirements.

What to do

  • Learn well-nigh your options to exercise absentee or early on voting in your land.
  • Keep in listen that the deadline to asking an absentee ballot may be before 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 lot have the right to vote.
  • If you make a mistake on your ballot, ask for a new one.
  • If the machines are down at your polling place, ask for a paper election.
  • If you encounter any problems or have questions on Election Day, call the Election Protection Hotline:
    • English: one-866-OUR-VOTE / 1-866-687-8683
    • Spanish: 1-888-VE-Y-VOTA / 1-888-839-8682
    • Arabic: i-844-YALLA-US / one-844-925-5287
    • For Bengali, Cantonese, Hindi, Urdu, Korean, Mandarin, Tagalog, or Vietnamese: 1-888-274-8683

The poll worker says my proper noun is not on the listing of registered voters

Your rights

  • Voters are entitled to a provisional election, even if they aren't in the poll volume.
  • Afterward Ballot Solar day, election officials must investigate whether you are qualified to vote and registered. If you are qualified and registered, they volition count your provisional ballot.

What to do

  • Ask the poll worker to double check for your proper name on the listing of registered voters. Make certain to spell your name out for the poll worker.
  • If your proper name is non on the list, ask if at that place is a supplemental list of voters.
  • If the poll worker still cannot observe your proper name, confirm that you are at the right polling place:
    • Request that the poll workers bank check a statewide organization (if one is bachelor) to run into if y'all are registered to vote at a different polling identify.
    • If the poll worker does non have admission to a statewide system, ask them to call the primary election role.
    • You can also phone call 1-866-OUR-VOTE and inquire for help verifying your proper polling identify.
    • If y'all are registered at a unlike location, in most instances you lot will have to travel to that location to cast a regular ballot.
  • If the poll worker still cannot observe your name or if yous cannot travel to the right polling place, ask for a provisional ballot.

Additional information

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

I am a voter with a inability

Your rights

  • Nether federal law, all polling places for federal elections must exist fully attainable to older adults and voters with disabilities. Simply assuasive curbside voting is not enough to meet Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) accessibility requirements.
  • In federal elections, every polling place must have at least one voting system that allows voters with disabilities to vote privately and independently. Commonly, this is a machine that tin read the ballot to you (for people with vision disabilities or dyslexia), and let you vote by pushing buttons (for people with mobility disabilities).
  • Nether federal law, voters with disabilities and voters who have difficulty reading or writing English have the correct to receive in-person help at the polls from the person of their choice. This helper cannot be the voter'south employer, an agent of the voter's employer, or an agent or officeholder of the voter's union. The helper must respect the voter's privacy, non looking at the voter'southward ballot unless the voter asks them to practise and then.
  • Election officials (including poll workers) must brand reasonable accommodations as needed to help you vote.
  • Ballot officials must provide you with assistance if information technology's 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 non 'qualified' to vote.

What to exercise

  • Yous can bring a family unit member, friend, or another person of your option to assist y'all at the polls. Exercise not bring your employer, or an agent of your employer or union.
  • If you bring a person to assist you lot, let the poll workers know that when you lot check in. They may ask you to swear under oath that you have a disability and that y'all accept asked that person to assistance you. Your helper may likewise be required to sign a course swearing that they did not tell you how to vote.
  • If in that location are long lines and you accept a concrete or mental health condition or disability that makes it difficult for you to stand in line, tell a poll worker.
  • Tell ballot officials what y'all need. For instance, if information technology's difficult for you lot to stand, they should provide you lot with a chair or a place to sit while yous wait. If the crowds or dissonance are hard for yous, election officials tin observe a placidity identify for you to wait and call yous when it's your plough to vote.
  • If you are non able to enter your polling identify because the pathway to information technology is non fully accessible, ask poll workers for curbside assistance. As well telephone call 1-866-OUR-VOTE to study the issue.
  • If you accept difficulty using the materials provided to make your ballot selections, review, or bandage your ballot, let a poll worker know and ask for the help you need. Accessibility is the law.
  • If you confront any challenges in voting privately and independently or are unable to cast your vote, report the trouble to the Election Protection hotline at 1-866-OUR-VOTE. Trained attorneys can assist you and make sure that other voters do not experience the same problem.

     Boosted information

  • Find detailed voting guides at Bazelon Eye for Mental Health Law
  • For a toolkit on voting with a disability, visit the Autistic Self Advocacy Network.
  • Visit SABE'due south GoVoter Project for accessible trainings on how to exercise your rights as a voter with a disability.
  • Accept 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 police force, voters who have difficulty reading or writing English may receive in-person help at the polls from the person of their choice. This person cannot be the voter's employer, an amanuensis of the voter's employer, or an agent or officer of the voter's union.
  • Counties covered by Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act are required to provide bilingual assistance to voters in specific languages. This means that they must provide poll workers who speak sure languages, and make all ballot materials and election-related information available in those languages. Check whether your canton is required to provide bilingual election assist in a language yous speak.

What to do

  • Yous tin can bring a family member, friend, or other person of your choice to assist you at the polls. Do not bring your employer, or an amanuensis of your employer or marriage.
  • If you live in a county that'due south required to provide bilingual voting assistance for a language you speak, you lot tin can request oral assistance from a bilingual poll worker and ask for voting materials, such equally a ballot, in that language.
  • If yous have trouble voting due to lack of English fluency, call 1 of these hotlines:
    • Spanish: one-888-VE-Y-VOTA / 1-888-839-8682
    • Arabic: ane-844-YALLA-US / 1-844-925-5287
    • English: ane-866-OUR-VOTE / 1-866-687-8683.
    • Bengali, Cantonese, Hindi, Urdu, Korean, Mandarin, Tagalog, Vietnamese): i-888-API-VOTE / i-888-274-8683

Additional information

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

Someone is interfering with my right to vote

Examples of voter intimidation

  • Aggressively questioning voters almost their citizenship, criminal record, or other qualifications to vote.
  • Falsely representing oneself equally an elections official.
  • Displaying false or misleading signs most voter fraud and related criminal penalties.
  • Other forms of harassment, particularly harassment targeting non-English language speakers and voters of color.
  • Spreading false data about voter requirements.
    • You lot do not need to speak English to vote, in whatsoever land.
    • You do not need to pass a examination to vote, in any state.
    • Some states practice not require voters to present photo identification.

Your rights

  • It'southward illegal to intimidate voters and a federal crime to "intimidate, threaten, [or] coerce … any other person for the purpose of interfering with the right of [that] other person to vote or to vote equally he may cull."

What to practise if you experience voter intimidation

  • In many states, you tin give a sworn statement to the poll worker that you satisfy the qualifications to vote in your land, and then continue to bandage a ballot.
  • Report intimidation to the Ballot Protection Hotline at ane-866-OUR-VOTE or 1-888-VE-Y-VOTA (en Español).
  • Study intimidation to your local ballot officials. Their offices will be open on Election Day.