Find your state and local election office
The short answer
Most voter questions are answered by a local office, usually a county or municipal clerk or board of elections, while statewide rules come from a state office such as a secretary of state or a state election board. Use the official directory to reach yours.
Go straight to the official source
Official source
Find your state or territory election office
Contact directory for the office that administers elections where you live.
Find your state or territory election office
This link leaves WomanVoters and opens the official site. We never ask for the personal details the official system requires.
Official source
Open the TrustedInfo directory of state election officials
Directory that points to state election officials as the source for election information.
Open the TrustedInfo directory of state election officials
This link leaves WomanVoters and opens the official site. We never ask for the personal details the official system requires.
Which office handles which task
| Task | Usually handled by |
|---|---|
| Registration record, address and name updates | Local office, with a statewide list maintained by the state |
| Polling place assignment and hours | Local office |
| Sample ballot for your precinct | Local office |
| Mail ballot request, delivery, and tracking | Local office, under statewide rules |
| Identification rules | State law, applied locally |
| Ballot qualification and the official candidate list | State office, sometimes with local filings |
| Unofficial election night results | Local office, aggregated by the state |
| Canvass and certification | Local boards first, then the state |
| Election complaints under federal law | State office, with federal routes for civil rights complaints |
What to have ready when you call
Have your registration address, the election you are asking about, and the specific question. Local offices are small, and a precise question gets a precise answer. If your question is about a deadline, ask for the exact date and the rule that sets it, because a paraphrase from a third party is not enough to act on.
Why officials are the source of record
State chief election officials publish their own guidance and coordinate through the National Association of Secretaries of State, which maintains a directory pointing voters back to official state sources. When an unofficial account of a rule conflicts with what the election office publishes, the election office is the record.
Reporting a problem
- Start with the local office, then the state office.
- Federal civil rights complaints about voting go to the Department of Justice, linked in our sources directory.
- For an immediate threat to anyone’s safety, contact local emergency services.
Questions worth asking
- Which office maintains my registration record, the state or the county?
- Who decides polling place locations here, and when are changes announced?
- Where does this jurisdiction publish unofficial results on election night?
- What is the certification date for this election, and who certifies it?
What the official record shows
There is no national election office
The United States runs elections through thousands of state and local jurisdictions. Federal agencies publish guidance and route voters, but they do not maintain your registration, print your ballot, or count your vote.
State and local roles are different
State offices generally publish statewide rules, maintain the statewide voter list, certify statewide results, and administer election law. Local offices handle registration records, polling places, poll workers, ballots, early voting sites, mail ballots, and the local canvass.
Our perspective
Local election administration is chronically underfunded
The people who answer the phone in a county office are usually running the entire operation with a small staff and a short budget. Treating that work as routine public infrastructure, and funding it that way, is the least glamorous and most effective election reform available.
This panel states what we believe. It is labeled, it is separate from the record above, and it never changes the voting instructions on this site.
The strongest argument against our view
Some argue that decentralization is itself a safeguard, because thousands of independent jurisdictions are much harder to compromise than one national system. That is a genuine strength of the design, and it is compatible with paying for the staff and equipment those jurisdictions need.
What remains uncertain
Office names differ widely. The same job may sit with a county clerk, a registrar of voters, a board of elections, a town clerk, or a supervisor of elections. Use the directory rather than guessing from another state.
Sources
-
USAGov, General Services Administration
State and territory election offices
Contact directory for the office that administers elections where you live.
-
United States Election Assistance Commission
Register and vote in your state
Registration and voting instructions maintained for every state and territory.
-
National Association of Secretaries of State
TrustedInfo, state election officials as the source
Directory that points to state election officials as the source for election information.
-
United States Election Assistance Commission
Federal summary of how election officials protect and count ballots.
Change history
This page has not been substantively changed since it was published on August 29, 2026.
Found an error? Report it and read the correction log.
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