Learn more near how to practice your voting rights, resist voter intimidation efforts, and access inability-related accommodations and language assist 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 annals 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 Mean solar day. Voter registration deadlines vary and some states permit individuals to register for the first time and bandage ballots on Election Day.

What to do

  • Check your registration condition at Tin 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 identify

Every state offers options to vote in-person on Election 24-hour interval, even those that primarily conduct elections past mail service.

What to do

  • Find your polling place or vote center and its hours of operation.
  • Make a plan for Ballot Day: When and where volition y'all cast your vote, and how will you get in that location?

I'm not sure what to bring to the polls

Your state may require yous to bring an ID or bring documents to testify your residence, especially if you're voting for the first time. Brand sure you're prepared.

What to do

  • Larn what materials y'all'll need to bring with you to the polling place on Election Day.

I want to vote before Election Day

Your rights

  • If you cannot vote in-person on Election Day, you may be able to vote early or past absentee vote-by-mail election.
  • Some states allow whatever voter to vote absentee; others accept stricter requirements.

What to exercise

  • Learn near your options to exercise absentee or early voting in your country.
  • Keep in mind that the borderline to asking an absentee ballot may be before Ballot Day.

What are my general rights on Election Twenty-four hours?

Your rights

  • If the polls shut while y'all're still in line, stay in line – you have the right to vote.
  • If you make a error on your ballot, ask for a new one.
  • If the machines are down at your polling place, enquire for a paper ballot.
  • If y'all run into whatsoever problems or have questions on Election Day, call the Ballot Protection Hotline:
    • English: 1-866-OUR-VOTE / 1-866-687-8683
    • Spanish: 1-888-VE-Y-VOTA / ane-888-839-8682
    • Arabic: one-844-YALLA-U.s.a. / i-844-925-5287
    • For Bengali, Cantonese, Hindi, Urdu, Korean, Mandarin, Tagalog, or Vietnamese: 1-888-274-8683

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

Your rights

  • Voters are entitled to a provisional ballot, even if they aren't in the poll book.
  • Later on Election Twenty-four hours, election officials must investigate whether you are qualified to vote and registered. If you lot are qualified and registered, they will count your provisional ballot.

What to practice

  • Ask the poll worker to double check for your proper name on the list of registered voters. Make sure to spell your proper noun out for the poll worker.
  • If your name is non on the listing, ask if there is a supplemental list of voters.
  • If the poll worker still cannot discover your proper noun, confirm that y'all are at the right polling identify:
    • Request that the poll workers bank check a statewide organisation (if one is available) to see if you are registered to vote at a different polling place.
    • If the poll worker does non have admission to a statewide system, ask them to call the main ballot part.
    • You lot tin can also call 1-866-OUR-VOTE and ask for aid verifying your proper polling place.
    • If you are registered at a different location, in most instances you will have to travel to that location to bandage a regular ballot.
  • If the poll worker still cannot find your proper name or if you cannot travel to the right polling place, ask for a provisional ballot.

Additional information

  • If you are turned away or denied a conditional ballot, call the Election Protection Hotline at i-866-OUR-VOTE or i-888-VE-Y-VOTA (en Español).
  • Study 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 be fully accessible to older adults and voters with disabilities. Simply allowing curbside voting is not enough to run into Americans with Disabilities Human action (ADA) accessibility requirements.
  • In federal elections, every polling identify must have at to the lowest degree one voting system that allows voters with disabilities to vote privately and independently. Usually, this is a car that tin read the election to y'all (for people with vision disabilities or dyslexia), and permit yous vote by pushing buttons (for people with mobility disabilities).
  • Under federal police force, voters with disabilities and voters who accept difficulty reading or writing English have the right to receive in-person assistance at the polls from the person of their selection. This helper cannot be the voter's employer, an agent of the voter'due south employer, or an agent or officer of the voter's union. The helper must respect the voter'due south privacy, not looking at the voter's election unless the voter asks them to practise so.
  • Election officials (including poll workers) must make reasonable accommodations as needed to help y'all vote.
  • Election officials must provide you with help if it'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 not 'qualified' to vote.

What to practice

  • You can bring a family member, friend, or another person of your choice to assist you at the polls. Do not bring your employer, or an agent of your employer or matrimony.
  • If you bring a person to assistance you, let the poll workers know that when y'all check in. They may enquire you to swear nether adjuration that you take a disability and that you accept asked that person to help you lot. Your helper may also exist required to sign a class 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 lot to stand in line, tell a poll worker.
  • Tell ballot officials what you demand. For example, if information technology'southward hard for you to stand, they should provide you with a chair or a place to sit while you wait. If the crowds or noise are difficult for you, ballot officials can find a tranquility place for yous to wait and telephone call you when it's your plough to vote.
  • If yous are not able to enter your polling identify because the pathway to it is not fully accessible, enquire poll workers for curbside assistance. Likewise call 1-866-OUR-VOTE to report the consequence.
  • If y'all have difficulty using the materials provided to make your election selections, review, or cast your ballot, let a poll worker know and ask 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, report the problem 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.

     Additional information

  • Find detailed voting guides at Bazelon Center for Mental Wellness Law
  • For a toolkit on voting with a disability, visit the Autistic Cocky Advocacy Network.
  • Visit SABE's GoVoter Project for attainable trainings on how to practice your rights as a voter with a inability.
  • Have a course on polling place accessibility requirements at the Rocky Mount ADA Center.
  • For voting in formation in American Sign Linguistic communication, visit SignVote.

I speak English 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 choice. This person cannot be the voter'southward employer, an agent of the voter's employer, or an agent or officer of the voter's union.
  • Counties covered past Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act are required to provide bilingual help to voters in specific languages. This means that they must provide poll workers who speak certain languages, and make all election materials and election-related information available in those languages. Check whether your canton is required to provide bilingual election aid in a language you speak.

What to do

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

Additional information

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

Someone is interfering with my right 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, particularly harassment targeting non-English speakers and voters of color.
  • Spreading simulated information about voter requirements.
    • You exercise not need to speak English to vote, in whatever state.
    • Yous exercise not need to pass a test to vote, in any state.
    • Some states practise not require voters to present photograph 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 correct of [that] other person to vote or to vote as he may choose."

What to do if you experience voter intimidation

  • In many states, you 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 election officials. Their offices will be open on Election Day.