Voting guide
How to Actually Vote
Registering, choosing how to cast your ballot, and understanding every question on it. Written for people voting for the first time, with links straight to the official page for your state.
Start here
Three things stand between you and a counted ballot
1. Register — or check that you still are
Most states let you register online in under ten minutes with a driver's license or state ID number. If you moved for college, you choose: register at your campus address or at home. You can only be registered in one place, and moving almost always means updating your registration.
2. Decide how you'll vote
Three options exist in most states: in person on Election Day, in person during early voting, or by mail. Mail ballots have to be requested in advance in many states, and they have their own return deadline — a postmark is not always enough.
3. Read the ballot before you're standing at it
The Senate race is the top line, but a ballot usually runs a full page: House, governor, legislature, judges, school board, and ballot questions written in legal language. Pull up a sample ballot the week before and decide at your kitchen table instead of in the booth.
Where you live decides the rules
Pick your state
Registration deadlines, ID requirements and mail-ballot rules are written state by state. Choose yours and we'll point you at the official pages that govern your vote.
Sample ballot questions
The part of the ballot nobody warns you about
Below the candidates sit questions written by lawyers. These are the four kinds you're most likely to meet, with a plain-language read of what a yes vote actually does. The wording is illustrative — your real questions are on your sample ballot.
Constitutional amendment
"Shall the state constitution be amended to require a two-thirds vote of the legislature to raise the income tax rate?"
Amendments change the state's founding document and are hard to undo. A yes vote adopts the new language exactly as printed — read the text, not just the title, because the title is written to persuade.
Bond measure
"Shall the district issue $250 million in bonds for school construction, repaid by property taxes?"
A bond is borrowing. Yes means the government borrows the money now and taxpayers repay it with interest over decades. Look for what the money builds and what the repayment does to your household's taxes.
Referendum on a passed law
"Shall Act 112, passed by the legislature in 2025, be approved?"
Here the vote is on a law that already exists. Confusingly, yes usually keeps the law and no repeals it — the opposite of an initiative, where yes creates something new.
Retention of judges
"Shall Judge Rivera be retained in office for another term?"
Judges often run unopposed on a keep-or-remove question. Bar association ratings and your local paper's coverage are the practical places to look, since judges cannot campaign on how they'd rule.
Know the date. Know the names.
Once you're registered, the only work left is deciding. Our calendar has every date in the cycle, and our senator pages lay out what each one has actually said and done.