About Us

What This Site Is For

Election administration in the United States is decentralised. The U.S. Constitution gives Congress some power to regulate federal elections (Article I, Section 4), but the day-to-day administration of voter registration, polling places, ballot design, vote counting, and certification is the responsibility of state and local election authorities. There is no single national registry of voters, no national ballot, and no single agency that runs federal elections. Instead, there are 50 state-level chief election officials, 8,000-plus local election jurisdictions (counties in most states, cities and towns in New England), and a federal coordination layer comprised of the Election Assistance Commission, the Federal Election Commission, the Department of Justice Voting Section, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and the Federal Voting Assistance Program.

The chief election authority varies by state. In most states the Secretary of State (often abbreviated SOS) serves as chief election official. In a smaller group of states the chief election authority is a State Board of Elections — New York (NY State Board of Elections), Maryland (Maryland State Board of Elections), Illinois (Illinois State Board of Elections), and North Carolina (North Carolina State Board of Elections) all use this structure. Wisconsin operates a Wisconsin Elections Commission. Hawaii has an Office of Elections. Florida runs elections through the Florida Department of State, Division of Elections. The agency name and structure changes; the function — running elections — does not.

board-of-elections.org/ is the practical reference for that layered system. Every state page lists the verified chief election authority name, the agency's official URL, the voter registration portal, the polling place lookup, the voter ID rule, the absentee/mail-in ballot rule, the early voting framework, the sample ballot resource, the election results portal, the address, and the phone number — all manually verified against the agency's own page.

We are completely independent. We are not affiliated with the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC), the Federal Election Commission (FEC), the U.S. Department of Justice, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP), the National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS), the National Association of State Election Directors (NASED), the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), or any state or local election authority.

The Eight Categories of Information You’ll Find on Each State Page

What You’ll Find on Each State Election Authority Page

• State chief election authority name and structure — official name (Secretary of State, State Board of Elections, Elections Commission, Department of State Division of Elections), the official who heads it, governance structure
• Official agency URL — verified live, the state’s .gov domain
• Voter registration portal — direct deep-link, eligibility rules, deadlines for federal and state elections, online vs. mail vs. in-person
• Polling place lookup — direct link to the official tool, accessibility information, election-day vs. early-voting
• Voter ID rule (as written into state law) — current state rule with citation; we describe what state law says, not what we wish it said
• Absentee and mail-in ballot rule — how to request, deadlines, return options, signature verification, ballot tracking, cure process for rejected signatures
• Early voting framework — window, locations, hours
• Sample ballot resource — the official sample ballot lookup or voter guide
• Election results portal — official certified-results website
• Provisional ballot rules — when issued, when counted, cure procedures
• Election worker / poll worker recruitment — application process, training, pay where applicable
• Military and overseas voter (UOCAVA) coordination — FPCA, FWAB, FVAP cross-reference
• Voter list maintenance framework — how the state maintains the voter rolls under the National Voter Registration Act and HAVA
• Election complaints / fraud reporting — state hotline (where one exists), state AG election unit, federal DOJ Voting Section, FBI election crimes coordinator
• Public-records request process — state public-records / sunshine law citations, election records officer, fees
• Federal cross-references — EAC voting system certification, DOJ enforcement, FVAP for UOCAVA, CISA for election infrastructure

How We Find and Verify — The Seven-Step Process

1. Identify the right authoritative source. We start with the state’s chief election authority page on the state’s .gov domain, cross-checked against NASS at nass.org and NASED at nased.org.
2. Verify the URL and phone number. A human editor clicks every link before publication and confirms the destination is the actual page. We dial-test main-line phone numbers periodically.
3. Verify the agency address. State election authorities are sometimes split across multiple buildings (main office, separate elections division, separate campaign finance office). We cross-check both physical and mailing addresses against the agency’s contact page and against USPS ZIP+4 lookup.
4. Document election rules from the state’s own published guidance. Voter registration deadlines, voter ID rule, absentee/mail-in framework, early voting window — captured from the state’s own administrative rule, not third-party summary.
5. Cross-check the federal cross-reference. EAC, FEC, DOJ Voting Section, FVAP, CISA — documented from the federal source with current URLs.
6. Cross-check the legal framework. State election codes, state public-records laws, state voter-registration statutes, federal HAVA / NVRA / VRA / UOCAVA / MOVE Act citations — current and live.
7. Editor sign-off. A second editor reviews the page end-to-end before it goes live, including a fresh check on the not-legal-advice notice and a neutrality review on any election-rule description that touches contested ground.

Nothing on this site is auto-scraped. Nothing is generated from a stale database. Every contact is human-verified before publication and re-verified on a quarterly cycle — with a heightened review cadence in the 90 days before any federal general election.

The National & Federal Layer — Key Sources

Who This Site Is For

• Voters — checking registration, finding a polling place, understanding the voter ID rule in their state, requesting an absentee or mail-in ballot, finding the cure process if a ballot signature is rejected
• First-time voters and recently-moved voters — registration deadline, eligibility, what ID to bring, where to vote, how to update address
• Military and overseas voters — UOCAVA coordination, FPCA registration, FWAB backup ballot, FVAP cross-reference
• College students — registration in home state vs. school state, residency rules, absentee request
• Voters returning from incarceration — state-by-state rights restoration rules (which vary widely)
• Naturalised citizens — registration after naturalisation, documentation requirements
• Voters with disabilities — polling place accessibility under HAVA, accessible voting machines (BMD), curbside voting where state law provides, accessible mail-in options
• Election workers and poll worker applicants — application process, training, pay (where applicable)
• Candidates and campaign staff — filing deadlines, qualification rules, signature requirements (we describe candidate filing procedures; we do not advise candidates legally)
• Journalists, researchers, and election integrity observers — public-records request workflow, election results portal, certification timelines, observer accreditation rules
• Attorneys — locating the right state election agency for litigation, public-records, or election contest matters
• Voter registration organisations — third-party voter registration rules, state-by-state requirements
• Political scientists and policy researchers — agency reference for academic work

What We Don’t Do

• We don’t take political positions, endorse candidates or parties, or make voter recommendations
• We don’t advocate for or against any specific election rule (voter ID, mail-in voting, drop boxes, voter list maintenance) — we describe what state law says
• We don’t adjudicate claims of election fraud or election irregularity — those go to the appropriate state and federal authorities
• We don’t provide legal advice, take cases, or represent any party — consult a licensed attorney
• We don’t operate a CRA, sell background checks, or provide FCRA-permissible-purpose reports
• We don’t register voters — that’s the state election authority’s responsibility through its registration portal
• We don’t issue, mail, or count ballots — those are the state and local election authorities’ responsibilities
• We don’t take voter intimidation reports — those go to the state AG, DOJ Voting Section, or FBI
• We don’t take HAVA complaints — those go to the state HAVA complaint authority and EAC
• We don’t certify election results — that’s the state canvassing board or election commission
• We don’t sell your data — see Privacy Policy

How We Pay for the Site

board-of-elections.org/ is funded by display advertising. Editorial content — verified contact details, walkthroughs, and procedure descriptions — is never altered to favour any advertiser, candidate, party, or political position. The official state election authority contact always comes first on every page, before any commercial reference. We do not accept advertising from any candidate, political party, political committee, ballot measure committee, lobbying organisation, dark-money group, or operation that conflicts with the nonpartisan public-information mission. We do not accept advertising from operations that misuse voter registration data for FCRA-prohibited purposes or that promise to "remove" voters from registration rolls outside the state's NVRA-compliant maintenance process. The full position is on our Editorial Policy and Disclaimer.

Corrections and Feedback

State and local election authority contact details change — agency reorganisations, new election directors, office relocations, website redesigns, and form revisions are routine. Election rules also change, sometimes mid-cycle through litigation or legislative session. If you spot something on the site that doesn’t match the live agency page, or you’ve called and confirmed something is wrong, please email us. Reader-reported corrections are our priority queue and get a response within seven business days, with a 48-hour expedited path for actively-broken phone numbers and addresses, and an immediate-response path during the 90 days before a federal general election.