Kutz is a Gender, Climate and Sustainability Reporter at The 19th.
Moreno is an Audience Engagement Producer at The 19th.
Election Day is November 8; here are some ways to find information about how to vote in your state.
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Make sure you’re registered to vote
Some places have automatic voter registration, meaning you’re registered to vote when you interact with a government agency, such as getting a driver’s license. In others, it takes a few more steps. All states occasionally update their voter lists and remove people who are no longer eligible to vote in that state. Make sure you’re registered at your current address.
Need to check your registration? You can find where to do that here, via the National Association of Secretaries of States (NASS), or on Vote.org.
Make sure you know when and how you can vote
Rules on how and when you can vote vary from state to state and sometimes county to county. Almost all states have some form of early voting, though limits vary on who can take advantage of it.
Make sure you know:
- Whether you can vote in person or by mail
- What kind of identification you might need
- What dates early voting starts and ends
- What the rules are on where to vote early vs. on Election Day
- What time polls open and close
- If you can vote by mail, whether the ballot must arrive by Election Day or be postmarked by Election Day
Vote.org has a guide to early voting by state.
The U.S. Vote Foundation allows you to search for the election office in your area.
The NASS also can help you find your polling place and what forms of ID you might need.
Vote411 from the League of Women Voters Education Fund has information on voting rules.
Find out what’s on your ballot
A local news outlet may have a good guide to who and what is on your ballot. You can also check BallotReady.org or Vote411, which both show you the offices and measures on your ballot.
Figure out how to get to the polls
Check your local public transit for discounts and free rides to the polls. RideShare2Vote provides free round-trip rides to the polls in a number of states. The ridesharing service Lyft is offering 50 percent off rides, bikes and scooters to the polls on Election Day with the code “VOTE22.”
What to know if you run into trouble
If you encounter an issue with your voter registration or eligibility, you may be asked to cast a provisional ballot, sometimes called a “challenge” or “affidavit” ballot. Provisional ballots are kept separate from regular ballots until after the election, at which point officials investigate and attempt to resolve the issue.
Most states provide a tool to let you track your mail or provisional ballot.
If you cast a provisional ballot, you may be contacted for additional information. If a ballot is cast in the wrong location, only votes that apply to the correct location will be counted. Find more information about provisional ballots in your state through the National Conference of State Legislatures.
If you run into other issues, you can contact an election protection hotline at 866-YOUR-VOTE, or check their website for more contact information, including in languages other than English.
What to expect about results
States have different rules about when ballots must be returned and when early ballots may be counted. Not having a final count or knowing who won on Election Night is in many cases normal, not a sign of fraud or any bigger problems.
This article is republished from The 19th under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner speaks to voters at a town hall at the Elks Lodge 188 on June 7, 2026, in Portland, Maine.
McConnell and Platner both feel entitled
The two men could not be more different. One, a Republican, octogenarian, seven-term Southern senator, the other a progressive, millennial Maine oysterman who’s never spent a day in elected office.
But Mitch McConnell, the senior senator from Kentucky who’s been MIA for the past few weeks and Graham Platner, the Maine Senate candidate who’s facing calls to drop out of his race against Sen. Susan Collins, apparently do have something in common: an outsized sense of entitlement.
McConnell, who is 84 and not running for reelection, has been hospitalized for three weeks, and yet we still don’t fully know what he was admitted for or what his condition is. Per CNN, “his office has not disclosed a medical reason for the hospitalization or provided specifics on his health status beyond saying last week that he ‘continues to improve’ and ‘is working closely with his staff on Kentucky and Senate matters.’ ”
While several legislators have said they’ve talked to him and insist he sounds strong, others have said they are completely in the dark. One MAGA influencer, Laura Loomer, posted ”High level source close to the White House tells me ‘Mitch McConnell is officially brain dead. He’s not coming back.’ ”
Meanwhile, up in Maine, Platner has been artfully dodging calls from his own party to drop out of his race after several allegations of misconduct from women, including a sexual assault allegation from a former girlfriend, came to light. While Platner, who has managed to survive a Nazi-tattoo scandal, a sexting scandal, and several old tweets scandals, denies the allegations, he has not quit.
High-profile Democrats including Sens. Bernie Sanders and Chuck Schumer, the latter of whom had unsuccessfully hand-selected Maine Gov. Janet Mills to face Collins instead of Platner, have urged Platner to drop out, while other Dems have accused him of trying to influence the picking of his replacement.
Maine Democratic Party Executive Director Devon Murphy-Anderson released a statement Tuesday, which said in part:
“Unfortunately, Graham Platner’s team has repeatedly reached out to us in an attempt to put their thumb on the scale of what this process looks like. We have repeatedly reiterated to Graham Platner’s team that they have no role in determining our next Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate nor in determining what this process looks like.”
Both incidents show a deep lack of accountability to voters, who in one case deserve to know whether their senator is capable of performing his duties, and in another deserve a candidate who isn’t being accused of crimes, bigotry and deception.
The offensive and odious entitlement of both McConnell and Platner stands out not because it is particularly unique among today’s political class. Tom Kean, the New Jersey GOP congressman, missed more than 100 votes, only sharing after a three-month mystery absence that he was dealing with depression.
Former President Joe Biden’s Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin failed to disclose a hospitalization for prostate cancer surgery, flouting the established rules for Cabinet members and senior U.S. officials.
From Biden’s insistence on running for reelection despite his obvious cognitive and political weaknesses to Trump’s brazen flouting of laws and norms, few politicians seem to appreciate that their public service job comes with responsibilities to constituents, including transparency and honesty.
But both parties increasingly justify the chicanery, because the stakes of winning elections and keeping power are simply too high. But that’s no excuse. If we’ve learned anything over the past decade, it’s that character and accountability do, in fact, matter. And when we, the voters, stop caring about it, well, so do they.
S.E. Cupp is the host of "S.E. Cupp Unfiltered" on CNN.