Every vote must be counted. But sometimes your ballot may not be counted. Ballot counting takes place for days after Election Day, so you may have time to fix some of the problems for why your ballot was not counted.
In the last
elections, we found that between 4 and 6 million votes were lost due to a
variety of problems:
- 3 million
votes may have been lost due to voter registration mix ups
- 2 million
votes may have been lost due to faulty voting equipment and confusing ballots
- 1 million
votes may have been lost as the result of polling place problems
Common
Reasons why a mail/absentee ballot is not counted:
- Signature
Matching – The signature on your mail/absentee ballot does not match the
signature the government has on record for you.
- Failure to
follow instructions completely or correctly.
Here’s what
you can do to make sure your vote is counted:
1. Track your
mail/absentee ballot to make sure it is counted. You can find each state’s
tracking information at www.ballotready.org.
2. Call the 1-888-API-VOTE (1-888-274-8683)
hotline if you need help. Assistance is provided in English, Bengali,
Cantonese, Hindi, Korean, Mandarin, Tagalog, Vietnamese, and Urdu.
3. Start tracking
early – There is often limited time to fix any problems
4. All states —with
the exception of Illinois, Missouri, and Wyoming— and Washington, D.C. offer
some form of ballot tracking for mail-in and absentee ballots. Vote.org
has links to each of the 47 states' tracking tools as well as resources for
people with questions about the status of a provisional ballot.
Read more: How the 2024 U.S. presidential election could be stolen
Tracking varies depending on states, so in some cases, voters will only be able to see basic information like when their ballot was mailed and when it was received on the online portal. In other cases, they will have the option to sign up for notifications via text, email or phone call through services like BallotTrax or Enhanced Voting. These systems offer more granular updates to the voter via text, email or calls throughout the ballot's journey.