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Updated September 24, 2024 at 09:25 AM ET
This story was originally published on Sept. 29, 2020, and has been updated.
Every election year, people wonder whether their votes matter. And yet, every election year, important races are decided by the narrowest of margins.
In 2022, 65 seats for statewide legislatures were decided by less than half a percentage point; more than a dozen races were decided by 10 votes or fewer; two were decided by a single vote.
Back in 2017, a contest in Virginia was tied after a recount and court hearing. State law said the winner would be determined at random. In that case, the name was plucked from a blue glass bowl: a selection that determined control of an entire body of government for a state with 8 million people.
If just one more person had voted, the people could have decided the outcome themselves.

Life Kit is here to help you figure out how to vote.
1. Get registered to vote. Do it early and update your information with your local elections office if you move.
Most voters don't start thinking about registration until Election Day approaches, which can put your ability to vote at risk.
Each state and U.S. territory has its own voting rules. Some states allow registration on the day you cast a ballot; others require you to register weeks in advance.
If you're going to be 18 years old on Election Day, Nov. 5, you should fill out a voter registration form as soon as possible. Even today.
There are lots of websites that can get you to the right place to register once you tell them where you live; we prefer sites run by government organizations like Vote.gov or the National Association of Secretaries of State as opposed to sites run by advocacy groups or political parties, since you can be more certain the information is up to date and correct.
The last important note is that you need to update your registration every time you move. Even if you think you're already registered correctly, you can double-check it today.
2. Get informed and make sure the information you're finding online about your candidates and voting rules is legit.
You can start with your local public radio station or newspaper. There are also nonprofits that put out candidate guides related to their areas of focus. Just a look at a candidate's official website or social media account like Instagram can tell you a lot about their priorities and the communities they say they care about.
Voting is not a test! You can bring notes or a voter guide with you to the polls on Election Day so you don't have to memorize everything.
Another hot tip: If you live in the U.S., you can't vote over the phone or by text in any U.S. election, and anyone who says otherwise is lying.
3. Go vote! Make sure you plan ahead — know where, when and how you're going to vote. Don't wait until the last minute.
Voting is different all across the country, and many states have changed rules since the last presidential election.
Still, there are three basic ways to cast a ballot: in-person on the final day of the election, known as Election Day; in-person before Election Day; and by mail.
The No. 1 question election officials hear around election time is, "Where do I vote?" There are a number of good websites that will tell you where your polling place is if you plug in your address. Vote.org has a list of all the different state locators and the National Association of Secretaries of State website has a dropdown menu.
You may also need identification. Some states require photo ID. These laws have been changing a lot in recent years, so it's worth double-checking, and you'll want to get your ID in order long before the day you want to cast your ballot. If you need help, the nonprofit group VoteRiders was founded specifically to help voters get the ID they need to vote.
Vote by mail and absentee ballot
The COVID pandemic pushed many states to offer more mail voting options in 2020, but the voting method had a long history before that and was already on the rise in the U.S. in recent years.
In a handful of states this year, every registered voter will be mailed a ballot, and many other states allow you to request a mail-in ballot without an excuse. In the states that don't, some voters will still be eligible to vote by mail if they provide a valid reason for doing so.
If mail-in voting is the best option for you, check out this guide from 2020 -- and request your mail-in ballot as soon as you can.
A couple of things to watch out for with vote-by-mail ballots:
- The biggest one is deadlines. In some states your ballot has to arrive by a certain date; in others, it has to be postmarked by a certain date. Check your state rules when you get your ballot.
- Mail ballots have different requirements than in-person ballots, so if you've never voted this way before make sure to take a moment and read the instructions. In some cases, voters need witnesses to sign for them or to write specific ID numbers on their envelopes.
- Make sure to take your time with your signature, sign in the right place, and don't just scribble it. Election workers will check to make sure it matches the signature they have on file, which could have been from many years ago. If you're worried about your signature, you can follow up with your elections supervisor to make sure it's fine.
- Some states offer official drop boxes where you can return your mail ballot, without having to interact with the U.S. Postal Service. Regardless of how you return it, sending your ballot in as early as you can means not having to worry about missing those deadlines.
Voting at an early-voting site
Almost every state now offers some form of early in-person voting to all voters (New Hampshire, Mississippi and Alabama are the exceptions).
If you vote early, it counts just the same.
There are big differences between states, however, on the number of days and hours early-voting sites are open, so check with your state's elections website. Generally, early voting is most crowded on the first couple days and the last day it's offered, so maybe plan one of those middle days if it's possible.
Voting in person on Election Day
If you are voting on Election Day, it's even more important to have a plan since you won't get another chance if something goes wrong. Plan ahead for how and when you'll get to the polling place. Will you drive? Take the bus? Go before work? At lunch? On your way to the gym?
Precincts are often the most crowded first thing in the morning and at the end of the day. So if it's possible, try to go in the middle of the day.
Whether you vote early or on Election Day, the process once you are at a precinct is the same. You will sign in, and then be directed to cast your ballot, either with paper and a pen or using an electronic machine. Read the instructions, and make sure you fill out the ballot correctly. "If it's an oval, fill it out completely. If it's an arrow, make sure that it's a straight line," says Jocelyn Benson, Michigan's secretary of state. If you don't, you run the risk of having your vote not count.
4. Have the voter hotline number 866-OUR-VOTE burned into your brain or saved in your phone.
That way if something happens, or if you see something sketchy, you have a resource to go to. There might be times when things go wrong. A poll worker says you're not registered. You can't physically access your polling space because there's no wheelchair ramp. Someone is harassing people at your polling place.
That phone number — 866-687-8683 — may be your No. 1 resource. It's the Lawyer's Committee for Civil Rights Under Law hotline for anyone with any sort of voting question or problem. The committee also has hotlines for different languages and field programs in many different states.
If for whatever reason you show up at your polling place and you aren't on the rolls, or even if you show up and you don't have the proper ID to vote, you'll usually be asked to vote with a provisional ballot.
This is a ballot that is exactly what it sounds like: Something needs to be worked out before your vote counts. You might have to bring a document to your election official within a certain time period, or your election supervisor might have to double-check that you actually are registered.
But it does not mean your vote won't count.
Another problem that gets a lot of media attention is voter intimidation: Someone actually at a polling place harassing people trying to vote.
This behavior is illegal everywhere.
You can call the lawyers committee hotline to report this sort of behavior, or you can file a complaint with the Justice Department.
Voting should be easy and accessible, and anyone who is making voting hard is in the wrong.
This episode originally ran in October 2019. You can listen to that audio here.
We'd love to hear from you. Leave us a voicemail at 202-216-9823, or email us at LifeKit@npr.org.
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