POLLING PLACE HOURS, ELECTION HOLIDAY STATUS AND SCHOOL CLOSINGS BY STATE

Updated September 2006 by the National Association of Secretaries of State All times are for voters’ local time zones unless otherwise indicated.
Source: National Association of Secretaries of State

Q. Where is my polling place?
Polling place location in each community is determined by local election officials. For the address or location of your specific polling place, please contact your county election official who may be either the County/Municipal Clerk, Supervisor of Elections, or Board/Commission of Elections.

Q. Where can I register to vote?
While a registration application may of course be obtained from the local election officials in your county, or through registration outreach programs sponsored by groups such as the League of Women Voters, you can also register to vote when applying for services at State DMV or drivers' licensing offices. State offices providing public assistance, State offices providing State-funded programs for the disabled, and armed forces recruitment offices also register people to vote.
In addition to these locations, many States offer registration opportunities at public libraries, post offices, unemployment offices, public high schools and universities.

Q: Where do I get the National Mail Voter Registration Form?

Contact the chief State election official in your State. This official is quite often the Secretary of State, but may also be the State Board of Elections or Lieutenant Governor. In most cases, the chief State election officials have forwarded quantities of the National Form to their respective County election officials or voter registrars for distribution to the general public and organized voter registration drives. In other cases, chief State election officials distribute the National Form from their offices in the State capitols. Finally, the Federal Election Commission distributes camera- ready copy and print specifications for the National Form to groups interested in contracting with a private printing company to produce the Form. Also remember that if you are registering in your home State, or conducting an in-State voter registration drive, it will almost always be easier and more cost effective to use your State mail voter registration form instead of the National Form. State forms are available from the same offices that provide the National Mail Voter Registration Form.

Q: Can I register to vote in any State or the District of Columbia using the National Form?

Yes, with the following exceptions: North Dakota does not have voter registration; Wyoming, by State law, cannot accept the National Form; Mississippi will accept the Form to register individuals for Federal elections only; and New Hampshire town and city clerks will accept the National Form only as a request for their own mail-in voter registration form

Q: Can the Form be photocopied?

Yes. However, please be aware that photocopied voter registration applications will not be accepted by all 50 States.

The following states accept photocopied voter registration applications: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Washington, and Wisconsin.

Those States not accepting photocopies will only accept the National Mail Voter Registration application printed according to Federal Election Commission regulations and specifications.

There are several legitimate reasons why States do not accept photocopies of a voter registration application. Among these are problems of insufficient paper-weight stock and copy quality. Many State laws require that the local election officials keep a hard copy of the voter registration application to provide a trail to establish voter identification through signature verification.

In some instances, these documents must be transferred from the election office to the polling places for each election. These offices have found that regular Xerox weight photocopy paper will not provide the file durability that they need for the application document. The varying quality of photocopied images can also present a major problem. This is especially true, since a poor quality photocopy can result in an almost unreadable image when the application document and/or signature is electronically scanned.

Q: I want to register a group of new citizens who are less than proficient in the English language. Has the National Form been translated into any other language?

Yes. The National Mail Voter Registration Form has been translated into Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, and Tagalog (Philippino), to facilitate registration by these language minority groups. The translated Forms are available in jurisdictions covered by the language minority provisions of the Voting Rights Act, or may be had as camera-ready copy through the Federal Election Commission's Office of Election Administration.

Q: Can my organization mail the completed Forms we receive in our registration drive, or do the individuals need to mail them personally? If we can mail them, do they have to be individually stamped or can they be bundled?

An organization may mail completed Voter Registration Applications to the appropriate election office(s) individually or in a bundle. The Department of Justice interprets the cost of first class postage to fall into the realm of "facilitating" voter registration, and not as an attempt to induce an individual to register to vote by giving something of value, which would be prohibited by the "vote buying" provisions of the Voting Rights Act.

Q: I want to do a massive voter registration drive. How many of the National Forms can I get at one time?

The number of Voter Registration Forms distributed to a single organization is generally at the discretion of the chief State election official. Many States base the number of Forms distributed on the size of the target population of the proposed registration drive, method of distribution, number of individuals registered by the organization in any previous voter registration drive and a number of other variables. Organizations interested in conducting voter registration activities should remember that the voter registration forms are paid for from tax dollars and should plan to request a realistic number of forms to minimize wastage.

Q: Can my organization supply just the application cards and simply provide the General and State Instructions separately as hand-outs or posters?

Yes. As a money saving alternative to printing the entire National Mail Voter Registration Form, you may want to have a supply of only the voter registration application cards printed according to the FEC specifications, and simply photocopy the General and State Instructions. The instructions could then either be handed out with each application card, or enlarged and posted at the registration site.