We are so happy that people love our Voter Help Desk on US Vote and Overseas Vote. You seem to love us a LOT right now:-) We answer all questions individually and personally. Here are the top questions and answers we've been getting - if you have a question - check this list, you may find your answer right here!

Did I miss the deadline to….?

You can check your state's deadlines (there may be several) for the upcoming election in our Election Dates and Deadlines directory.

You can also check for different ways your state allows you to send in voting materials (like registration and ballot request forms) under the Voter Materials Transmission Options section of the State Voting Requirements directory.

Am I Registered?

You can check your registration status through each state's look up service.

Go to the the State Voting Requirements directory and click into State Look Up Tools - you will see your state's "Am I Registered?" link at the top of the list.

Where’s my Vote-by-Mail (absentee) ballot?

Good that you want to check it!

You can go here to our State Voting Requirements directory: Look up your state and open the "State Lookup Tools" section. There you will see a "Where's My Ballot" link as well - if your state offers it.

If the above suggestion does not work, you will need to look up and call your election office - they manage ballot sending and counting. Look them up in the Election Official Directory.

by David Jefferson, Verified Voting[1]

In the last couple of years several startup companies have begun to promote Internet voting systems, this time with a new twist – using a blockchain as the container for voted ballots transmitted from voters’ private devices. Blockchains are a relatively new system category somewhat akin to a distributed database. Proponents promote them as a revolutionary innovation providing strong security guarantees that can render online elections safe from cyberattack.

Unfortunately, such claims are false. Although the subject of considerable hype, blockchains do not offer any real security from cyberattacks. Like other online elections architectures, a blockchain election is vulnerable to a long list of threats that would leave it exposed to hacking and manipulation by anyone on the Internet, and the attack might never be detected or corrected.

In its recent report[2], “Securing the Vote – Protecting American Democracy” the National Academy of Sciences summarized its findings:

Conducting secure and credible Internet elections will require substantial scientific advances.

The use of blockchains in an election scenario would do little to address the major security requirements of voting, such as voter verifiability. The security contributions offered by blockchains are better obtained by other means. In the particular case of Internet voting, blockchain methods do not redress the security issues associated with Internet voting.

In this short paper we attempt to explain why blockchains cannot deliver the security guarantees required for safe online elections. But the summary is simple: Most of the serious vulnerabilities threaten the integrity and secrecy of voting before the ballots ever reach the blockchain.