Election Day Brass Tacks – 5 Things you need to know to make your vote counts!

1. Due to redistricting, many polling locations have changed. Voters should confirm their polling location at this link before they head to the polls. 
2. Polling locations are open 7am-8pm. Voters will need to bring a government-issued ID, such as a Voter ID, driver’s license, state ID, military ID, passport, hunting or fishing license, or other current or valid photo ID.  Additionally, Regional Offices are open for voting from 7am-8pm on Election Day, with ballots for all 40 districts available. 
3. Absentee ballots must be postmarked by election day in order to be counted.  Voters need to take their ballots directly to the post office and ask a postal worker to hand cancel the stamp to ensure that it meets postmark requirements. Voters can also take their ballot envelope to any Polling Location, a Regional Office, or an Absentee Location.  
4. Sample ballots are available online and will also be available at polling locations. Sample ballots provide voters with the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the races on both sides of the ballot. Sample ballots can be brought to the polls as long as they are not publicly displayed. 
5. For the RCV races, voters are reminded to fill in no more than one oval for each candidate or column, as demonstrated below. For the voter’s 1st choice, fill in the oval in the 1st-choice column. For the voter’s 2nd choice, fill in the oval in the 2nd-choice column, and so on. The voter’s 2nd choice is only counted if their 1st choice is eliminated. A more detailed explainer video of how to fill out the ballot and how votes are counted can be found here and here.  Voters can rank as many candidates as they like – but the more a voter ranks, the more voice they have in their representation. 

Onward and upward.

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