What are your voting rights?

1. If polls close while you are in line, you still have the right to vote, so stay in line.

2. You have the right to ask for a new ballot if you make a mistake on your ballot.

3. You have the right to ask for a paper ballot if polling machines are down at your polling place.

4. You generally have the right to a provisional ballot (under certain circumstances according to state law). Election officials will investigate shortly after Election day if your provisional vote is qualified. If you provisional vote is qualified, it will be counted.

5. If English is not your first language, you have the right to receive in person assistance from a person of your choice that is not your employer.

Information from the ACLU website

Examples of voting rights violations

Violations of voting can take many forms from overt obstruction of voting to more subtle forms such as making voting harder to vote for certain groups of people. Some example of voter rights violations include (but are not limited to):

  • A poll worker intimidates you to vote for specific candidate
  • You get shut out of the polling place after waiting line
  • Your polling place does not accommodate your disabilities
  • Someone offers to pay you in exchange for voting for a specific candidate
  • A poll worked asks you more information than legally required or is overzealous about checking your IDs

If you find yourself in any of these situations or in a situation where you feel your right to vote freely and without obstruction has been violated, you can:

  • Contact your local elections office
  • Contact the Secretary of State office or Elections office of your state
  • Call the non-partisan voter protection hotline at 1-866-OUR-VOTE
Election Protection Hotline

If you need help at the polls, call the non-partisan Election Protection hotline at:

ENGLISH

866-OUR-VOTE      866-687-8683

SPANISH/ENGLISH

888-VE-Y-VOTA      888-839-8682

ASIAN LANGUAGES/ENGLISH

888-API-VOTE        888-274-8683

ARABIC/ENGLISH

844-YALLA-US       844-925-5287