Acquire more about how to exercise your voting rights, resist voter intimidation efforts, and admission inability-related accommodations and linguistic communication assistance at the polls. For assistance at the polls, call the non-partisan Election Protection Hotline at one-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 take different voter registration deadlines and requirements, so make certain you are registered well in accelerate of Election Solar day. Voter registration deadlines vary and some states allow individuals to register for the first time and cast ballots on Election Mean solar day.

What to do

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

I demand to find my polling place

Every country offers options to vote in-person on Election Day, even those that primarily conduct elections by mail.

What to do

  • Discover your polling place or vote center and its hours of performance.
  • Make a programme for Ballot Day: When and where will yous bandage your vote, and how will you get there?

I'm not certain what to bring to the polls

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

What to do

  • Learn what materials you'll need to bring with you to the polling identify on Ballot Twenty-four hours.

I want to vote before Election Day

Your rights

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

What to do

  • Learn nearly your options to practise absentee or early voting in your land.
  • Keep in mind that the deadline to request an absentee ballot may be before Election Day.

What are my full general rights on Ballot Day?

Your rights

  • If the polls close while you're still in line, stay in line – you have the right to vote.
  • If you brand a mistake on your election, ask for a new one.
  • If the machines are down at your polling identify, ask for a paper ballot.
  • If y'all run across any problems or take questions on Election Day, phone call the Election Protection Hotline:
    • English language: 1-866-OUR-VOTE / 1-866-687-8683
    • Spanish: 1-888-VE-Y-VOTA / 1-888-839-8682
    • Arabic: 1-844-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 not on the list of registered voters

Your rights

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

What to do

  • Ask the poll worker to double check for your proper name on the list of registered voters. Brand certain to spell your proper noun out for the poll worker.
  • If your proper noun is not on the list, ask if there is a supplemental list of voters.
  • If the poll worker still cannot notice your name, confirm that you are at the correct polling place:
    • Request that the poll workers bank check a statewide system (if one is bachelor) to encounter if you are registered to vote at a unlike polling identify.
    • If the poll worker does not have access to a statewide system, ask them to call the main election part.
    • You lot tin can also phone call 1-866-OUR-VOTE and ask for help verifying your proper polling place.
    • If you are registered at a dissimilar location, in most instances you will have to travel to that location to cast a regular ballot.
  • If the poll worker notwithstanding cannot find your name or if yous cannot travel to the right polling place, ask for a provisional election.

Additional information

  • If you lot are turned abroad or denied a provisional election, phone call the Election Protection Hotline at 1-866-OUR-VOTE or 1-888-VE-Y-VOTA (en Español).
  • Report your experience 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 not enough to see 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. Usually, this is a machine that can read the ballot to y'all (for people with vision disabilities or dyslexia), and permit you vote by pushing buttons (for people with mobility disabilities).
  • Under federal police force, voters with disabilities and voters who take difficulty reading or writing English language accept the right to receive in-person help at the polls from the person of their selection. This helper cannot be the voter'southward employer, an agent of the voter'southward employer, or an agent or officeholder of the voter's union. The helper must respect the voter'south privacy, non looking at the voter'southward ballot unless the voter asks them to do and then.
  • Election officials (including poll workers) must make reasonable accommodations as needed to help you lot vote.
  • Election officials must provide you with help if it'due south possible for them to exercise and then.
  • 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 practice

  • You can bring a family member, friend, or some other person of your choice to assistance you lot at the polls. Exercise not bring your employer, or an amanuensis of your employer or wedlock.
  • If you bring a person to help yous, let the poll workers know that when you check in. They may enquire yous to swear under oath that you have a disability and that you have asked that person to assistance yous. Your helper may also exist required to sign a form swearing that they did not tell you how to vote.
  • If at that place are long lines and you lot have a physical or mental health condition or disability that makes information technology difficult for you to stand in line, tell a poll worker.
  • Tell election officials what you need. For example, if it's hard for you lot to stand, they should provide you with a chair or a place to sit while you expect. If the crowds or dissonance are difficult for you, election officials can observe a serenity place for yous to await and phone call yous when information technology's your turn to vote.
  • If you lot are not able to enter your polling place because the pathway to it is not fully accessible, ask poll workers for curbside assist. Also call 1-866-OUR-VOTE to report the issue.
  • If you have difficulty using the materials provided to make your election selections, review, or cast your election, let a poll worker know and enquire for the help you need. Accessibility is the law.
  • If you lot face any challenges in voting privately and independently or are unable to cast your vote, study the problem to the Ballot Protection hotline at 1-866-OUR-VOTE. Trained attorneys tin assist yous and brand sure that other voters do non experience the same trouble.

     Additional information

  • Discover detailed voting guides at Bazelon Center for Mental Wellness Constabulary
  • For a toolkit on voting with a disability, visit the Autistic Cocky Advancement Network.
  • Visit SABE'southward GoVoter Projection for attainable trainings on how to do your rights as a voter with a disability.
  • Have a class on polling identify accessibility requirements at the Rocky Mountain ADA Centre.
  • For voting in formation in American Sign Linguistic communication, visit SignVote.

I speak English language less than "very well"

Your rights

  • Nether federal law, voters who have difficulty reading or writing English may receive in-person assistance at the polls from the person of their selection. This person cannot exist the voter'southward employer, an agent of the voter's employer, or an agent or officer of the voter's union.
  • Counties covered by Section 203 of the Voting Rights Human activity are required to provide bilingual assistance to voters in specific languages. This means that they must provide poll workers who speak certain languages, and brand all election materials and ballot-related information bachelor in those languages. Check whether your county is required to provide bilingual election assistance in a language you speak.

What to exercise

  • Yous can bring a family member, friend, or other person of your choice to help you at the polls. Do not bring your employer, or an agent of your employer or wedlock.
  • If you alive in a county that'southward required to provide bilingual voting help for a language you speak, you lot can request oral assistance from a bilingual poll worker and ask for voting materials, such every bit a ballot, in that language.
  • If you have trouble voting due to lack of English language fluency, call one of these hotlines:
    • Spanish: 1-888-VE-Y-VOTA / 1-888-839-8682
    • Standard arabic: i-844-YALLA-U.s. / 1-844-925-5287
    • English: 1-866-OUR-VOTE / 1-866-687-8683.
    • Bengali, Cantonese, Hindi, Urdu, Korean, Standard mandarin, Tagalog, Vietnamese): 1-888-API-VOTE / 1-888-274-8683

Additional information

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

Someone is interfering with my correct to vote

Examples of voter intimidation

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

Your rights

  • Information technology's illegal to intimidate voters and a federal crime to "intimidate, threaten, [or] coerce … any other person for the purpose of interfering with the correct of [that] other person to vote or to vote as he may cull."

What to do if you feel voter intimidation

  • In many states, you can give a sworn statement to the poll worker that you lot satisfy the qualifications to vote in your state, and and so go on to bandage 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 election officials. Their offices will be open on Ballot Day.