A ballot is the paper sheet or electronic screen a voter uses to record their choices in an election, and once submitted it becomes the official record of how that voter voted. Every state prints or programs its own ballots under state election codes, but federal law shapes what has to appear on them, how they must be made accessible, and how disputed ones get handled.
What’s Printed on a Ballot
Every official ballot lists the contests a voter is eligible to decide, starting with the highest offices (president, governor, U.S. senator) and working down through legislative seats, judicial races, and local positions like school board or county commissioner. Under each contest, qualified candidates appear by name with their party affiliation.
The order those names appear in is not random. State election codes set the method, which might be alphabetical, a lottery draw, rotation across precincts so each candidate appears first on some portion of ballots, or party-based ordering where the governor’s party or the party that won the last election gets top billing.
Below the candidate races, most ballots include ballot measures. These are policy questions put directly to voters rather than decided by the legislature, and they come in a few forms:
- Citizen initiatives, where enough petition signatures place a proposed law on the ballot.
- Popular referenda, where voters approve or reject a law the legislature already passed.
- Legislative referrals, where the legislature sends a question to voters, often because the state constitution requires voter approval for bond issues, tax changes, or constitutional amendments.
Twenty-four states and a few territories allow citizen-initiated measures.
Write-In Lines
Most states provide a blank line in each contest where you can write in someone not listed. Availability varies: most states allow write-ins for federal offices like president, senator, and representative, and many extend it to state offices. Most states require write-in candidates to file paperwork before the election, and votes for unregistered write-ins are not counted.1USAGov. Write-in Candidates for Federal and State Elections
Ranked-Choice Ballots
A growing number of jurisdictions use ranked-choice voting, which changes the ballot layout. Instead of picking a single candidate, you rank candidates in order of preference: first choice, second choice, third choice, and so on. If no candidate wins a majority of first-choice votes, the last-place candidate is eliminated and their ballots are redistributed to each voter’s next-ranked choice. The process repeats until one candidate reaches a majority. As of early 2026, three states (Alaska, Maine, and Hawaii) use ranked-choice voting for some statewide or federal elections, seven states have adopted laws authorizing it in certain elections, and nineteen states have banned it outright.
How Ballots Are Marked and Counted
Most voters mark a paper ballot by filling in an oval, completing an arrow, or filling in a box next to their choice. That sheet then runs through an optical scanner at the polling place or a central counting facility, where sensors detect the ink marks and convert them into a digital tally. Because the physical sheets remain, paper ballots can be recounted by hand if results are disputed.
A smaller number of jurisdictions still use direct recording electronic (DRE) machines, where you make selections on a touchscreen and the choices are stored in computer memory. DRE use has dropped significantly, and remaining machines increasingly include a printer that produces a voter-verified paper audit trail so you can confirm the machine recorded your choices correctly before the vote is finalized.
Instructions printed on the ballot tell you exactly how to mark it, because scanning equipment reads literally. Stray marks, incomplete fills, or marks outside the target area can cause a scanner to misread the ballot.
Ways to Cast a Ballot
Voting in person on Election Day is the traditional method. You arrive at your assigned polling place, an election worker confirms your registration and identity, and you mark a ballot and feed it into the scanner or deposit it in a ballot box.
Election Day is not the only option. Forty-seven states, the District of Columbia, and several territories offer early in-person voting at designated locations days or weeks before Election Day. Only Alabama, Mississippi, and New Hampshire do not offer early voting to all voters.
Mail-In and Absentee Ballots
Every state provides some way to vote by mail. Some states mail ballots to all registered voters automatically; others require you to request an absentee ballot. Completed ballots are returned through the postal service or, in many places, through secure drop boxes staffed by bipartisan teams of election officials.2U.S. Election Assistance Commission. How Do Drop Boxes Work
Return deadlines differ significantly by state. Some require the ballot to arrive at the election office by the time polls close on Election Day. Others count ballots postmarked by Election Day that arrive within a grace period, ranging from a few days to about a week. Missing the deadline means the ballot is not counted, so check your state’s specific rules well before the election.
Whether someone else can return your completed ballot for you also depends on your state. Most states allow a designated person, often limited to a family member, household member, or caregiver. About a dozen states cap how many ballots any single person can return per election, with limits typically ranging from two to ten. A handful of states prohibit anyone other than the voter from returning it. Violating these rules can carry criminal penalties.
Military and Overseas Voters
Under the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act, as amended by the MOVE Act, every state must offer members of the military, their families, and U.S. citizens living abroad the option to receive a blank ballot electronically by email, fax, or online portal. States must transmit the ballot at least 45 days before a federal election when the request is received by that deadline.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 52 USC 20302 – State Responsibilities
Common Ballot Mistakes and How They’re Handled
Two errors come up constantly at the polls:
- An overvote is selecting more candidates than allowed in a single contest, like marking two candidates in a race where only one can win. An overvote does not invalidate your entire ballot. Only the overvoted contest goes uncounted; your valid choices in every other race still stand.
- An undervote is selecting fewer candidates than allowed, or skipping a contest entirely. An undervote never invalidates a ballot. Your votes in every other contest are still counted normally.
Many optical scanners are programmed to catch overvotes before accepting the ballot. If the machine detects one, it returns the ballot and displays a warning. At that point you can ask a poll worker to spoil the original and issue a fresh one. Most states allow at least one or two replacement ballots for mistakes at the polling place. Once a ballot has been fed into the scanner or dropped in a ballot box, though, the vote is final.
Signature Verification and Ballot Curing
Mail ballots face a different kind of error: the signature on the return envelope may not match the one on file, or you may forget to sign. About two-thirds of states have a “cure” process, which requires election officials to contact you and give you a chance to verify your identity or provide a corrected signature before the ballot is rejected. Notification method (phone, email, text, or mail) and cure deadline vary widely, from Election Day itself to several days after. In states without a cure process, a missing or mismatched signature means the ballot is not counted.
Provisional Ballots
If you show up at the polls but your name is not on the registration list, or an election official questions your eligibility, you cannot simply be turned away. Federal law requires that you be allowed to cast a provisional ballot. You sign a written statement affirming you are registered and eligible, and the ballot is set aside in a sealed envelope.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 52 USC 21082 – Provisional Voting and Voting Information Requirements
After the polls close, election officials verify whether you were in fact registered and eligible under state law. If you were, the provisional ballot is removed from its envelope and counted like any other. If not, it stays sealed and uncounted. Every voter who casts a provisional ballot must be given information about a free system, such as a toll-free phone number or website, where they can find out whether their vote was counted and, if not, why.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 52 USC 21082 – Provisional Voting and Voting Information Requirements
Accessibility and Language Requirements
Federal law requires every polling place to offer at least one voting system accessible to voters with disabilities, including those who are blind or visually impaired. That system must provide the same opportunity for access, participation, privacy, and independence as the systems available to other voters.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 52 USC 21081 – Voting Systems Standards In practice, this usually means a ballot-marking device with audio output, large-print display options, and interfaces compatible with assistive technology like sip-and-puff devices or paddle switches.
Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act adds a language layer. Covered jurisdictions must provide ballots and all election materials in the applicable minority language in addition to English.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 52 USC 10503 – Bilingual Election Requirements A jurisdiction is covered when it contains more than 10,000 or over 5 percent of voting-age citizens who belong to a single language minority group, have depressed literacy rates, and do not speak English very well.7U.S. Department of Justice. Language Minority Citizens For language groups whose language is historically oral or unwritten, such as some Alaska Native and American Indian languages, the jurisdiction must provide oral assistance and instructions instead of written translations.
Why Your Ballot Is Secret
Every state requires a secret ballot. Once you submit your completed ballot, no one should be able to connect your identity to your choices. That protection exists to prevent voter intimidation, vote buying, and political retaliation.
Modern election systems enforce secrecy through design. At polling places, voters mark ballots in private booths, and finished ballots are deposited into machines or boxes without any identifying marks. Mail-in ballots use a double-envelope system: you sign the outer envelope for identity verification, and the actual ballot sits inside an inner secrecy envelope. During processing, the outer envelope is checked and separated from the inner one before any ballots are opened and counted, so no election worker sees both your identity and your choices at the same time.