Voter Registration 101
What does it mean to be registered to vote?
Voter registration verifies your identity and eligibility to vote.
When registered, you're added to an "electoral roll," or list, of eligible voters in the state. When you go to vote at a polling place, or apply for an absentee ballot, they will first check you are registered. (North Dakota is the only state without registration requirements.)
Who is eligible to register to vote?
You must be a US citizen, a legal resident of your state, and a legal resident of the county you're registering in.
Some states have ‘residency requirements,’ requiring that you have lived there for a certain number of days (usually 30 days) before registering.
While you must be 18 to vote in all states, in some states you can pre-register at age 16 or 17 and it become active when you are old enough. (A handful of municipalities now allow people younger than 18 to vote, but not in federal elections.)
How do you get registered to vote?
It depends on the options in your state and what type of identification you have.
In all states, you can register by filling out a paper form that gets mailed or dropped off at a local election office. Many states also offer online voter registration (OVR).
In most states, to use the online registration option, you must provide a Driver’s License number or other ID number provided by the state to verify your identity against state records. In a few states, you can use the last four digits of your Social Security Number instead of a State-issued ID number.
When should you get registered?
Voters can register at any time - the earlier, the better! There is no downside to being registered, even if there is not an election coming up soon.
Most states have registration cutoffs, so it's important to make sure you're registered before it gets too close to the election. If you aren’t registered, you can’t vote.
Depending on the state, cutoffs can be as early as 30 days out from Election Day. In some states, there is a "same-day registration” option where you can register in-person during Early Voting or on Election Day.
Do you have to register with a political party?
It depends on your state's laws for Primaries and Caucuses. (These are processes where voters indicate their preference for the candidates to run in a General Election. Winners of the Primary or Caucus move on to the General Election.)
For states that have 'closed' primaries, voters must register with a specific party and can only vote for candidates within that party.
For states with open primaries, you don’t have to register with a specific party and can choose which party’s ballot to vote.
Some states allow unaffiliated voters to participate in Primaries and Caucuses, while others don't.
Should college students register at home or on campus?
It’s up to each individual!
College students, like all individuals, can register and vote in the community that they regard as their primary or main residence.
This means that you have the option to vote at a campus address or another “home” address.
To help make that decision, here are questions students can consider:
-Which community do you want to advocate for and feel most connected to?
-Which address do you have more access to when it comes to voting?
-Where will you be living at the time of the next election?
How does pre-registration work?
While you generally must be 18 to vote, in some states, you can pre-register at age 16 or 17 and then will automatically become active when you are old enough.
In most states that offer this option, you can pre-register at 16 and in a few it is 17. About half the states don’t have a specific policy but allow you to register if you will be 18 by the next election.
