Acquire more well-nigh how to practice your voting rights, resist voter intimidation efforts, and admission disability-related accommodations and language assist at the polls. For help at the polls, phone call the non-partisan Ballot 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 make certain you are registered well in advance of Election Day. Voter registration deadlines vary and some states allow individuals to register for the commencement time and cast ballots on Election Day.

What to practise

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

I need to notice my polling place

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

What to practise

  • Observe your polling place or vote centre and its hours of operation.
  • Make a program for Election Solar day: When and where will you bandage your vote, and how will you get there?

I'thousand non sure what to bring to the polls

Your state may crave y'all to bring an ID or bring documents to show your residence, especially if you lot're voting for the showtime time. Make sure you're prepared.

What to do

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

I want to vote before Ballot 24-hour interval

Your rights

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

What to practice

  • Learn most your options to exercise absentee or early voting in your state.
  • Proceed in mind that the borderline to request an absentee ballot may be before Ballot Day.

What are my general rights on Election Day?

Your rights

  • If the polls close while y'all're yet in line, stay in line – you 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 ballot.
  • If yous encounter any bug or have questions on Election Day, telephone call the Election Protection Hotline:
    • English language: 1-866-OUR-VOTE / ane-866-687-8683
    • Spanish: i-888-VE-Y-VOTA / i-888-839-8682
    • Arabic: 1-844-YALLA-United states of america / 1-844-925-5287
    • For Bengali, Cantonese, Hindi, Urdu, Korean, Standard 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, fifty-fifty if they aren't in the poll book.
  • After Election Day, election officials must investigate whether yous are qualified to vote and registered. If yous are qualified and registered, they will count your conditional ballot.

What to do

  • Ask the poll worker to double check for your name on the list of registered voters. Make certain to spell your name out for the poll worker.
  • If your name is not on the list, ask if there is a supplemental list of voters.
  • If the poll worker still cannot find your proper name, confirm that yous are at the correct polling identify:
    • Asking that the poll workers bank check a statewide organisation (if one is bachelor) to see if yous are registered to vote at a dissimilar polling place.
    • If the poll worker does not have admission to a statewide system, ask them to telephone call the chief election part.
    • You tin also telephone call one-866-OUR-VOTE and enquire for aid verifying your proper polling place.
    • If y'all are registered at a different location, in about instances you will have to travel to that location to cast a regular ballot.
  • If the poll worker still cannot find your name or if yous cannot travel to the correct polling identify, enquire for a provisional election.

Additional information

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

I am a voter with a inability

Your rights

  • Nether federal constabulary, all polling places for federal elections must be fully accessible to older adults and voters with disabilities. Only allowing curbside voting is non enough to run into Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) accessibility requirements.
  • In federal elections, every polling place must have at least ane voting system that allows voters with disabilities to vote privately and independently. Usually, this is a machine that can read the election to you (for people with vision disabilities or dyslexia), and permit you vote by pushing buttons (for people with mobility disabilities).
  • Under federal law, 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 option. This helper cannot be the voter's employer, an agent of the voter'southward employer, or an agent or officer of the voter'southward union. The helper must respect the voter's privacy, not looking at the voter's ballot unless the voter asks them to do so.
  • Ballot officials (including poll workers) must make reasonable accommodations as needed to assist y'all vote.
  • Election officials must provide you with help if it's possible for them to exercise 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 do

  • You can bring a family member, friend, or another person of your option to assist you at the polls. Do non bring your employer, or an agent of your employer or union.
  • If yous bring a person to assist you lot, permit the poll workers know that when you lot bank check in. They may ask you to swear nether oath that you take a inability and that yous take asked that person to help you. Your helper may also be required to sign a form swearing that they did not tell yous how to vote.
  • If there are long lines and you take a concrete or mental health condition or disability that makes it hard for you to stand up in line, tell a poll worker.
  • Tell election officials what you need. For example, if it's hard for you to stand up, they should provide you with a chair or a place to sit down while you lot wait. If the crowds or racket are difficult for yous, ballot officials tin find a quiet place for you to look and call yous when it's your turn to vote.
  • If you are not able to enter your polling place because the pathway to it is not fully accessible, enquire poll workers for curbside assistance. As well call 1-866-OUR-VOTE to report the event.
  • If you have difficulty using the materials provided to make your ballot selections, review, or cast your election, let a poll worker know and ask for the help you lot demand. Accessibility is the law.
  • If yous 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 yous and make sure that other voters do non feel the same trouble.

     Additional information

  • Find detailed voting guides at Bazelon Middle for Mental Health Law
  • For a toolkit on voting with a disability, visit the Autistic Cocky Advancement Network.
  • Visit SABE's GoVoter Project for accessible trainings on how to exercise your rights as a voter with a disability.
  • Accept a grade on polling place accessibility requirements at the Rocky Mountain ADA Center.
  • For voting in germination 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 assistance at the polls from the person of their choice. This person cannot exist the voter's employer, an agent of the voter's employer, or an amanuensis 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 ballot-related information bachelor in those languages. Check whether your county is required to provide bilingual ballot assistance in a linguistic communication you speak.

What to practise

  • You tin bring a family member, friend, or other person of your selection to assistance you at the polls. Do not bring your employer, or an amanuensis of your employer or union.
  • If yous live in a county that'due south required to provide bilingual voting assistance for a language y'all speak, you lot can asking oral assistance from a bilingual poll worker and enquire for voting materials, such as a ballot, in that language.
  • If you have problem voting due to lack of English fluency, call one of these hotlines:
    • Spanish: 1-888-VE-Y-VOTA / one-888-839-8682
    • Arabic: ane-844-YALLA-United states / 1-844-925-5287
    • English: 1-866-OUR-VOTE / 1-866-687-8683.
    • Bengali, Cantonese, Hindi, Urdu, Korean, 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 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 simulated or misleading signs well-nigh voter fraud and related criminal penalties.
  • Other forms of harassment, particularly harassment targeting non-English language speakers and voters of color.
  • Spreading false information about voter requirements.
    • You do non need to speak English language to vote, in any state.
    • You practise not demand to laissez passer a test to vote, in whatsoever state.
    • Some states do not require voters to nowadays photo identification.

Your rights

  • It'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 practise if you experience voter intimidation

  • In many states, you tin can give a sworn statement to the poll worker that y'all satisfy the qualifications to vote in your state, and then go on to cast a ballot.
  • Report intimidation to the Election Protection Hotline at ane-866-OUR-VOTE or i-888-VE-Y-VOTA (en Español).
  • Report intimidation to your local election officials. Their offices volition be open on Election Day.