How elections work

Before you vote

Registration deadlines, voter identification, early voting and voting by mail are set by each state, and are on its election office's own pages. Each state's page on this site links them, as the National Association of Secretaries of State's Can I Vote directory lists them, for the 50 states and the District of Columbia: checking your registration, finding your polling place, voting absentee or early, and registering.

Vote.gov, from the federal government, links each state's registration too.

Sources: National Association of Secretaries of State: Can I Vote; Vote.gov

When federal elections are held

Federal law sets the day of the general election for Congress: the Tuesday after the first Monday in November of every even-numbered year (2 U.S.C. 7). In 2026 that is November 3. Every House seat is on that ballot, because House terms are two years.

A state holds a regular Senate election when one of its senators' six-year terms is ending, on the same November ballot, and the winner's term begins on January 3 of the next year (2 U.S.C. 1). When a Senate seat falls vacant, the Seventeenth Amendment calls for an election to fill it (see filling vacancies).

Primary dates are not set nationally; each state sets its own. Texas law puts its general primary on the first Tuesday in March of even-numbered years. Georgia held its 2026 primary on May 19, with a runoff on June 16.

See it on this site: The races on the ballot · The races on the partisan map

Sources: 2 U.S.C. 7 (the day of the House election); 2 U.S.C. 1 (the election of senators); U.S. Constitution, Seventeenth Amendment; Texas Election Code, chapter 41 (election dates); Georgia.gov, Georgia election guide

Who runs elections

The Constitution's Elections Clause leaves the times, places and manner of congressional elections to each state's legislature, and lets Congress make or change those rules by law (Article I, Section 4).

Each state has a chief election official, who oversees or advises. But, as the U.S. Election Assistance Commission puts it, elections are usually run at the county level, and in some states by cities or townships, and no two states run them the same way. So the rules for registering, voting by mail and counting differ from state to state.

Sources: U.S. Constitution, Article I; U.S. Election Assistance Commission, Who is in charge of elections in my state?

Primaries, and other ways candidates are nominated

In a partisan primary, voters choose a party's candidate for the general election; a nonpartisan primary narrows the field for an office. Who may vote in a party's primary varies by state. In a closed primary, only voters affiliated with the party may take part. An open primary generally lets any voter take part: in Virginia, any qualified voter may vote in a primary, but no one may vote for the candidates of more than one party. In a partially closed primary, the state's parties decide whether voters registered with no party may take part.

Louisiana began closed party primaries in spring 2026, for the U.S. Senate among other offices. A voter registered as a Democrat or a Republican votes only in that party's primary, and a voter registered with no party may choose either party's primary, but not both.

Some states hold no party primary for Congress. California and Washington list every candidate on one primary ballot, and the two with the most votes go on to November whatever party they prefer; a party preference on Washington's ballot is shown for voters' information only. Alaska's primary chooses no party's nominee: the four candidates with the most votes go on to the general election, which is decided by ranked-choice voting. On November 3, 2026, Alaska's voters also decide a ballot measure that would repeal its open primary and ranked-choice general elections.

Louisiana's U.S. House seats follow a different calendar in 2026. Under Act 7 of the 2026 Regular Session they were moved to the November 3 ballot as an open primary: every candidate runs on one ballot, a candidate with a majority of the votes is elected, and otherwise the top two, of any party, meet in a general election on December 12. Louisiana's page lists the candidates the Secretary of State has qualified.

Some parties nominate without a primary. In Virginia, a state party may decide how it nominates candidates for the U.S. Senate and statewide office, and state law sets deadlines for nominations made other than by primary. In Connecticut, a party convention endorses a candidate for each state or district office, and a primary is held only if another candidate qualifies to challenge the endorsed one; otherwise the endorsed candidate is the nominee.

See it on this site: Who is still on the ballot

Sources: U.S. Election Assistance Commission, Primary election types; Code of Virginia 24.2-530 (who may vote in a primary); Louisiana Secretary of State, How candidates are elected; California Secretary of State, Primary elections in California; Revised Code of Washington 29A.52.112 (the top-two primary); Alaska Statutes 15.25.010 (the primary); Alaska Statutes 15.15.350 (ranked-choice general elections); Alaska Division of Elections, Petitions and ballot measures; Louisiana Secretary of State, release of May 14, 2026 on the fall House races; Code of Virginia 24.2-509 (how a party nominates); Code of Virginia 24.2-510 (nominations other than by primary); Connecticut General Statutes, chapter 153 (nominations and primaries)

How campaigns are funded

Under federal law a person becomes a candidate for Congress once their campaign has raised or spent more than $5,000 (52 U.S.C. 30101(2)). Within 15 days they must file a statement of candidacy with the Federal Election Commission, naming a principal campaign committee, which registers within 10 days more and reports what it raises and spends. This site takes its line from that sum, counting money raised only: a challenger has a profile once their campaign reports $5,000 or more raised, while each race's count of who has filed includes everyone, and a nominee under it is named all the same.

For the 2025-26 elections an individual may give a candidate's committee up to $3,500 per election, a primary, general, runoff and special election each counting separately, and a multicandidate PAC up to $5,000 per election. An individual may give a national party committee up to $44,300 a year, and a political action committee (PAC), including one a corporation or a union has set up, up to $5,000 a year. The limits on gifts to a candidate and to a national party rise with inflation in odd-numbered years.

Spending that is not coordinated with a candidate is not a contribution, and has no limit. An independent expenditure is a communication expressly advocating the election or defeat of a clearly identified candidate, made without the cooperation of the candidate, their campaign or a party (52 U.S.C. 30101(17)), and whoever makes one reports it to the FEC, in some cases within 24 or 48 hours. Committees that make only independent expenditures, often called super PACs, may accept unlimited contributions, corporations' and unions' among them.

The money on each profile here is what the candidate's own campaign committees reported to the FEC for the election: what they raised, what they spent and the cash they had left, as of the date shown. It does not include what parties, PACs or super PACs spend on their own for or against the candidate.

See it on this site: Each candidate's money, in their profile

Sources: 52 U.S.C. 30101 (candidate, federal office and independent expenditure defined); Federal Election Commission: Registering as a candidate; Federal Election Commission: Contribution limits for 2025-2026; Federal Election Commission: Making independent expenditures

Running for office

A candidate for Congress registers with the FEC once their campaign passes $5,000 (above); the FEC's guide to registering as a candidate explains how. Getting on the ballot is a separate matter, set by each state's law: where and by when to file, whether a fee or a petition is needed, and how a party nominates. Each state's chief election official publishes those rules; the U.S. Election Assistance Commission lists who runs elections in each state.

The FEC regulates campaigns only for federal office: president, vice president, senator and representative, and Congress's delegates and resident commissioner (52 U.S.C. 30101(3)). Candidates for state and local offices file, and report their money, under state law. The 2026 ballot map shows which state offices each state elects this year, with the state's own record for each.

Sources: Federal Election Commission: Registering as a candidate; 52 U.S.C. 30101 (candidate, federal office and independent expenditure defined); U.S. Election Assistance Commission, Who is in charge of elections in my state?; U.S. Constitution, Article I

Runoffs

Some states require a winner to have a majority of the votes, not just the most. When no one has a majority, the leaders meet again in a runoff. In Texas, a primary candidate needs a majority of the votes to win a party's nomination, and a runoff primary is held when no one has one.

Georgia requires a majority in its primaries and its general elections; when no candidate has one, the top two meet in a runoff (O.C.G.A. 21-2-501). Georgia's general-election runoff, if one is needed in 2026, is on December 1, four weeks after Election Day.

Louisiana's December round is not a primary runoff: for its House seats in 2026 the November 3 vote is itself the open primary, and a seat no one wins with a majority is decided at the general election on December 12. So some House seats may not be decided until December.

Sources: Texas Election Code, chapter 172 (primaries and runoffs); Georgia SB 202 (2021), including O.C.G.A. 21-2-501 (runoffs); Georgia.gov, General election runoff, December 1, 2026; Louisiana Secretary of State, How candidates are elected

Ranked-choice voting

Maine and Alaska decide their federal general elections by ranked-choice voting. Maine also uses it in its primaries for Congress, governor and the legislature, but not in its general elections for governor or the legislature: its Supreme Judicial Court has advised, in 2017 and again in April 2026, that the state constitution requires those to be decided by plurality. Voters rank the candidates in order of preference instead of choosing one.

The count goes in rounds. If a candidate has more than half of the first choices, that candidate wins. If not, under Alaska's law the last-place candidate is eliminated and each of that candidate's ballots moves to the next candidate ranked on it, and the rounds repeat until someone wins; Maine eliminates the lowest-ranked candidates round by round until two are left. In Maine, when no one wins on the first count, ballots and memory devices are brought from each town to a central count in Augusta. Alaska counts mailed ballots that arrive up to 10 days after the election, or 15 days for ballots mailed from outside the United States, so its final count waits for that window to close; in Maine the rounds are run only after the ballots reach Augusta.

Sources: Maine Secretary of State, Ranked-choice voting: frequently asked questions; Maine Revised Statutes, Title 21-A, section 723-A (ranked-choice voting); Maine Supreme Judicial Court, Opinion of the Justices, 2026 ME 32; Alaska Statutes 15.15.350 (ranked-choice general elections); Alaska Statutes 15.20.081 (absentee ballots)

Counting, canvassing and certification

Voting ends on Election Day; counting does not, and results reported on election night are unofficial. Some states count mailed ballots sent by Election Day that arrive afterward: California counts ballots postmarked by Election Day that reach the county by November 10, 2026. On June 29, 2026 the Supreme Court held, in Watson v. Republican National Committee, that the federal Election Day statutes do not stop a state from counting ballots postmarked by Election Day and received afterward.

Provisional ballots take time too. In a federal election, a voter whose name is not on the list, or whose eligibility an official questions, may cast a provisional ballot, and it is counted if election officials later confirm under state law that the voter was eligible (52 U.S.C. 21082).

After the count, local officials review and confirm the results - the canvass - and then the state certifies them, on deadlines each state sets. Two examples for 2026: California's counties have until December 3 to certify, and its Secretary of State certifies the statewide results by December 11. In Texas, local canvasses are held from the third day after the election at the earliest, and the state canvass must be done by December 7.

Sources: California Secretary of State, November 3, 2026 general election: key dates and deadlines; Watson v. Republican National Committee, No. 24-1260 (June 29, 2026); 52 U.S.C. 21082 (provisional ballots); Texas Secretary of State, Advisory 2026-21: the November 3, 2026 election law calendar

Recounts

Recounts are governed by state law. Three examples. Arizona recounts automatically when the margin between the top two candidates is one-half of one percent or less of the votes cast for both. Florida orders a recount when the unofficial returns show a candidate lost by one-half of a percent or less of the votes cast for the office, unless the losing candidate asks in writing that none be made. In Texas a candidate must ask: one condition is that the difference between the candidate and the winner is less than 10 percent of the winner's votes, and as a general rule the petition is due by 5 p.m. on the third business day after the canvass is completed.

Sources: Arizona Revised Statutes 16-661 (automatic recounts); Florida Statutes 102.141 (canvassing boards and recounts); Texas Election Code, chapter 212 (recounts)

From Election Day to January 3

The dates the law and the states set between the vote and the new Congress, and beside them what this site's races show at each point, in the words its profiles use.

Sources: 2 U.S.C. 7 (the day of the House election); California Secretary of State, November 3, 2026 general election: key dates and deadlines; Georgia.gov, General election runoff, December 1, 2026; Texas Secretary of State, Advisory 2026-21: the November 3, 2026 election law calendar; Louisiana Secretary of State, release of May 14, 2026 on the fall House races; U.S. Constitution, Twentieth Amendment

Taking office

Under the Twentieth Amendment, the terms of senators and representatives end, and the new terms begin, at noon on January 3. The regular terms of the members elected on November 3, 2026 begin at noon on January 3, 2027. A member elected to the rest of a vacant term, as in the special Senate elections on the same ballot, joins a term already running rather than one that begins on January 3.

The Constitution makes each house of Congress the judge of the elections, returns and qualifications of its own members (Article I, Section 5), so a dispute over who won a House or Senate seat can end up before that house.

Governors and state legislators take office on dates set by each state's constitution and laws. In Texas, for one, the governor is installed on the first Tuesday after the Legislature organizes, or as soon after as is practicable.

Sources: U.S. Constitution, Twentieth Amendment; U.S. Constitution, Article I; Texas Constitution, Article 4 (the executive department)

Filling vacancies

When a House seat falls vacant, the Constitution has the state's governor call an election to fill it (Article I, Section 2). It provides for no appointment, so the seat is empty until an election fills it. When that election is held is left to each state's law (2 U.S.C. 8), and a seat that falls vacant late in a Congress can stay empty until the regular November election, whose winner takes it when the new Congress meets.

Senate vacancies are covered by the Seventeenth Amendment: the governor calls an election, and the state's legislature may let the governor appoint a temporary senator until the voters fill the seat by election as the legislature directs. Whether a governor may make that appointment, and when the election is held, depends on each state's law.

Sources: U.S. Constitution, Article I; U.S. Constitution, Seventeenth Amendment; 2 U.S.C. 8 (when a House vacancy is filled)