Ways to Vote

Voting in the United States isn’t a single act performed the same way everywhere. Depending on where you live, you might cast a ballot in person on Election Day, vote early at a designated site, or fill out a ballot at your kitchen table and return it by mail. Each method has its own steps, deadlines, and safeguards.

Voting by mail has grown from a narrow accommodation into a routine option in many states, though the rules for who can use it and how ballots must be returned still vary widely. Understanding the difference between the two most common versions of this option matters, since Absentee vs. Mail-In Ballots: What’s the Difference? shapes what paperwork you’ll need and when. If you choose this route, walking through How to Vote by Mail: The Full Process and later How to Track Your Mail Ballot After You Send It can help you avoid the most common reasons ballots get rejected.

The tools of voting have changed dramatically over time, from hand-counted paper ballots to optical scanners and touchscreens, and the story behind that shift, told in How Americans Vote: From Paper Ballots to Voting Apps, explains why election equipment looks so different from one county to the next.

Not every ballot is counted the same way at the moment it’s cast. When a voter’s eligibility can’t be confirmed on the spot, poll workers issue a different kind of ballot, and Provisional vs. Regular Ballots: Your Voting Guide explains what that means for whether and how your vote ultimately gets counted.