How Voter Registration Works

Last updated 1 month ago. Our resources are updated regularly but please keep in mind that links, programs, policies, and contact information do change.

Voter registration is the record election officials keep to determine a voter’s eligibility and precinct. Every state except North Dakota requires it, and the deadline can fall as much as a month before an election.

For federal elections, a voter must be a U.S. citizen, meet the state’s residency requirements and be 18 on or before Election Day. Vote.gov directs each voter to state instructions for registering online, by mail or in person. Once registered, an active voter does not have to do it again unless a name or address changes. In Arlington, Virginia, “active” registration status means ready to vote on Election Day, while “inactive” means officials are unsure of the address, such as after returned mail or a postal notice of a move.

The record behind the ballot

The registration database helps prepare ballots and pollbooks, the lists used to check voters at the polls, and supports signature verification for absentee ballots.

Congress’s stated purposes for the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 include increasing eligible citizens’ registration and participation, protecting election integrity and maintaining accurate voter rolls. The law does not apply to Idaho, Minnesota, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Wisconsin or Wyoming. In the other states, a driver’s license application or renewal also serves as a voter-registration application for federal elections unless the applicant does not sign the voter-registration portion. The 1993 law connects registration to transactions people already make, while leaving election officials responsible for the voting record.

Who is eligible, and where to check

For federal elections, voters must be U.S. citizens, meet their state’s residency requirements and be 18 years old on or before Election Day. In almost every state, a person can register before turning 18 if they will be 18 by Election Day, and some states let such 17-year-olds vote in primaries.

Voting restrictions related to criminal convictions or mental disability vary by state. A person experiencing homelessness can still meet state residency requirements. California, for example, allows students living away at school to use either their school address or traditional home address, but its guidance says they may not register in two places during the same election cycle.

USA.gov’s state and local election office directory identifies the offices that provide help with registration and voting. Use that directory to reach the official office when eligibility, residence or a missing application is unclear.

Choose a route, then complete it

Vote.gov starts the process by asking for the voter’s state or territory and directing them to its instructions for online, mail or in-person registration.

Online and mail applications

California’s online system, for example, searches motor-vehicle records for an applicant’s driver-license or identification-card number, date of birth and last four Social Security digits. With the applicant’s authorization, a signature found in those records is added to the application electronically. Follow the state system’s final instructions, including any requirement to sign and return paper, instead of assuming the last online screen completes every step.

The U.S. Election Assistance Commission’s National Mail Voter Registration Form can register citizens, update a name or address, or register a political-party choice. An applicant must follow the state-specific instructions, sign the form and send it to the state or local election office with proper postage.

The national form can be used for registration in 46 states and the District of Columbia, with exceptions for New Hampshire, North Dakota, Wisconsin and Wyoming. New Hampshire accepts it only as a request for its own absentee mail-registration form, while Wisconsin accepts it for that request or to direct a person to its online registration system.

Federal law generally requires an applicant with a current, valid driver’s license to supply its number; other applicants supply the last four digits of their Social Security number. The state assigns an identifying number to an applicant who has neither a current, valid driver’s license nor a Social Security number. The national form requires an applicant to sign and date a statement affirming citizenship, state eligibility and the truth of the information, and warns that supplying false information can lead to fines or imprisonment.

The DMV offer and automatic registration

In states covered by the National Voter Registration Act, a voter-registration application submitted with a motor-vehicle transaction updates any previous registration. A motor-vehicle change-of-address form also serves as a voter-registration address-change notice unless the voter states that the change is not for registration purposes. Declining that address update leaves the voter needing to check that election officials have the correct voting address.

An active voter whose name and address have not changed does not need to re-register. So someone already registered does not need to say yes when the motor-vehicle office offers registration. If there is any doubt about what was selected on a motor-vehicle form, check the existing record afterward. In California, eligible DMV applicants can opt out to avoid a new registration or an update to an existing registration.

Automatic registration is not the same as registering online: it is a separate process tied to information gathered during a government transaction. Oregon’s process, for example, sends eligible unregistered people an options notice after a qualifying driver-license, identification-card or permit transaction. Unless a response is received within 21 days of mailing the notice, Oregon registers the person without a political-party affiliation. Returning the card can select a party for its primaries or decline registration. Oregon also allows a later opt-out card, or contact with the county clerk, to cancel registration.

In covered states, public-assistance offices and offices providing state-funded programs that primarily serve people with disabilities must also act as voter-registration agencies. Those agencies must distribute application forms, help complete them unless assistance is refused, and accept completed forms for forwarding to election officials.

Military and overseas applicants

Uniformed-service members who are away from home, their eligible family members and citizens living abroad can use the Federal Post Card Application to register, request an absentee ballot and update contact information. The form directs voters to their state’s guidelines at FVAP.gov.

The deadline changes what remains possible

In states covered by the National Voter Registration Act, an eligible applicant whose valid form is in at least 30 days before a federal election, or by the state’s own deadline if that is closer to the election, must be registered to vote in it. What has to happen by that date depends on the route: submission to the motor-vehicle office, acceptance by a registration agency, a mail postmark or receipt by the election official.

Vote.gov and the state election office provide the state’s registration deadline. Check what the deadline measures for the chosen method, a postmark or receipt for example, then allow time to confirm the record before the deadline passes.

California offers same-day registration for eligible citizens who need to register or re-register within 14 days of an election, at a county elections office, polling place or vote center. Their ballots are processed and counted once the county elections office completes registration verification. That is California’s rule; do not assume another state offers the same option.

Election officials verify and maintain the record

Signed into law on October 29, 2002, the Help America Vote Act reformed voting systems and voter access after the 2000 election. The Help America Vote Act requires states with voter registration to maintain an official computerized statewide list under the chief state election official. Local election officials can access the list immediately and must enter registration information into it on an expedited basis.

In California, the county elections official contacts an applicant when the application is approved or more information is needed to confirm eligibility. In covered states, the National Voter Registration Act requires notice of the outcome of an application.

The place collecting an application and the election officials managing the voter record are different parts of the process. In California, for example, a voter who applied through another agency can be told by the county elections office that no registration is on file. The state’s advice is to give the county elections official any documentation of when and where the application was submitted, such as a receipt with a tracking number or timestamp. That makes a submission receipt worth keeping until the registration is confirmed. To see whether a registration is on file, USA.gov points voters to the registration-status page on their state’s election website and advises checking before the state’s registration deadline.

What database checks establish

The Help America Vote Act requires each state’s chief election official and its motor-vehicle authority to agree to match registration information against motor-vehicle records, so that the information on applications can be verified. It also requires the motor-vehicle authority to have an agreement with the Social Security Administration. The statute makes this provision optional for certain states authorized to use full Social Security numbers on registration applications. Matching application information with another record does not establish every requirement for voting eligibility.

A 2008 National Research Council interim report on state voter registration databases explains that matching can mistakenly connect different people or fail to connect records for the same person. It identifies data-quality problems and the lack of a truly unique identifier as reasons matching cannot be perfect. A mismatch warrants resolving the record, rather than assuming that the person is necessarily ineligible.

A voter who registered by mail and is voting for the first time in the state in a federal election may need to show a current, valid photo identification or a current document bearing their name and address. Acceptable documents include a utility bill, bank statement, government check, paycheck or government document; a mail voter provides a copy. Federal exceptions include a voter who provided acceptable identification with the registration or whose supplied identifying number was matched to a state record with the same name and birth date. Another covers a voter entitled to an absentee ballot under the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act, which covers military and overseas voters, or with another federal right to vote outside an in-person process.

States may impose additional voter-identification requirements. Check registration requirements and the identification needed to cast a ballot as separate steps.

Registration persists, but information changes

A change of name or an address within the state calls for a registration update. A permanent move to another state requires registration in the new state. Registration does not have to be repeated before every election, but an old record is no guarantee that the right name and address are still on the list.

In states covered by the National Voter Registration Act, federal law permits removals for a voter’s request, death, a change of residence under the required safeguards, or state-law grounds involving criminal conviction or mental incapacity. Under that law, not voting alone is not a lawful reason to remove a registrant from a federal-election voter list.

In those states, a voter cannot be removed for a possible move outside the registrar’s jurisdiction unless the voter confirms the move in writing or two things happen. The voter must fail to respond to a notice from the registrar and then not vote or appear to vote through the second federal general election following that notice. That notice must use forwardable mail with a prepaid, pre-addressed return card on which the voter can report the correct address. Respond to election-office address notices and check the registration record, especially after moving.

In covered states, any program to systematically remove ineligible voters’ names must finish at least 90 days before a federal primary or general election. That deadline does not bar a removal requested by the voter, a removal for death or state-law conviction or mental incapacity, or correction of registration information.

When a name is missing at the polls

Under federal law, a person who says they are registered in the jurisdiction where they want to vote and eligible to vote in that federal election, but who is missing from the polling-place list or is told they are ineligible, must be allowed to cast a provisional ballot. Provisional ballots are kept separate and are processed and counted only after officials verify eligibility and that the person has not already voted. The voter signs an affirmation of registration and eligibility, and election officials receive the ballot or information for verification.

A provisional ballot preserves a chance to have eligibility checked; it does not by itself erase a missed registration deadline or substitute for a state’s same-day registration process. States exempt from the National Voter Registration Act may instead meet the provisional-voting requirements through their own voter-registration procedures.

The appropriate state or local election official determines eligibility under state law and counts an eligible provisional ballot accordingly. Officials must give written information about a free-access system, such as a phone number or website, where the voter can learn whether the ballot counted and, if it did not, why. Keep the free-access instructions for checking the result.

For possible federal voting-rights problems, the Justice Department’s Voting Section accepts reports through civilrights.justice.gov and can be reached toll-free at (800) 253-3931.

Confirm the registration record while there is still time to fix it; if a problem surfaces at the polls, ask election officials about the applicable registration or provisional-voting process.