How to interpret this record
Voting and Election Rules by State: 2026 Directory
A ballot brings together several decisions that share an election date but may follow different rules. The office, jurisdiction and stage of the election tell you what each choice means.
Start with the office and the place
An election record describes a particular office or question in a particular jurisdiction. A statewide contest is different from a congressional district, a city council seat or a school district. An address can help connect those boundaries, but a ZIP code alone is not a guarantee of one exact ballot. Use the election authority’s own ballot lookup to confirm the final choices for a voter.
Separate a filing from a ballot appearance
A campaign-finance filing tells you that a financial record exists. It does not, by itself, establish that the person qualified for the November ballot. A primary participant, withdrawn candidate and certified general-election candidate can all leave public records. Read the election stage and the source label before treating a directory as a current candidate list. Registered write-in candidates are a separate category whose rules depend on the jurisdiction.
Read the full elections & ballots guide →How does voting work
where you live?
Primary systems, registration rules, early voting, absentee voting, and mail-ballot return policies from the EAC/NCSL state profiles—kept in source language and connected to the responsible state office.
51 sourced rules pages
Electionpedia does not infer ranked-choice voting, write-in, judicial-retention, or runoff rules where the current source does not publish them. Those gaps remain visible.
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Compare all state source profiles
| State | Primary rules in the source |
|---|---|
| Alabama | Open |
| Alaska | Top-four open primary |
| Arizona | Open to unaffiliated voters |
| Arkansas | Open |
| California | Top-two |
| Colorado | Open to unaffiliated voters |
| Connecticut | Partially closed |
| Delaware | Closed |
| District of Columbia | Closed |
| Florida | Closed |
| Georgia | Open |
| Hawaii | Open |
| Idaho | Partially closed |
| Illinois | Partially open |
| Indiana | Partially open |
| Iowa | Partially open |
| Kansas | Partially closed |
| Kentucky | Closed |
| Louisiana | All-comers/open to unaffiliated for legislative races, other races may be closed |
| Maine | Open to unaffiliated voters |
| Maryland | Partially closed |
| Massachusetts | Open to unaffiliated voters |
| Michigan | Open |
| Minnesota | Open |
| Mississippi | Open |
| Missouri | Open |
| Montana | Open |
| Nebraska | Nonpartisan for state legislature; other primaries are closed |
| Nevada | Partially open |
| New Hampshire | Open to unaffiliated voters |
| New Jersey | Closed |
| New Mexico | Open to unaffiliated voters |
| New York | Closed |
| North Carolina | Open to unaffiliated voters |
| North Dakota | Open |
| Ohio | Partially open |
| Oklahoma | Partially closed |
| Oregon | Partially closed |
| Pennsylvania | Closed |
| Rhode Island | Open to unaffiliated voters |
| South Carolina | Open |
| South Dakota | Partially closed |
| Tennessee | Closed |
| Texas | Open |
| Utah | Partially closed |
| Vermont | Open |
| Virginia | Open |
| Washington | Top-two |
| West Virginia | Partially closed |
| Wisconsin | Open |
| Wyoming | Closed |
Source: U.S. Election Assistance Commission / NCSL State Election Profiles ↗ · verified 2026-08-24.