A sample ballot is a copy of the exact ballot you will be handed at your polling place, tied to your registered address. It is the only reliable way to see every race and question you will vote on before you get there.
Where to get your sample ballot
Sample ballots come from your county or municipal election office, not from the federal government and not from any national website. Most states publish them online a few weeks before election day.
The route that works in every state is vote.gov, the official federal voter site run with the U.S. Election Assistance Commission. Pick your state and it links to that state registration check and election website. From there, look for a voter lookup, My Voter Page, or Voter Information Portal, and enter your address.
Some states mail a sample ballot or a voter information pamphlet to registered voters. Others post it only online. A handful publish it through the county clerk rather than the state, so if the state site does not show one, check your county election office.
What a sample ballot shows
A sample ballot lists every contest for your precinct in the order it appears on the real ballot. For November 3, 2026 that usually means:
- Your U.S. House race, one of 435 on the ballot nationally.
- A U.S. Senate race, if your state has one in 2026. 35 states do.
- Statewide offices such as governor, attorney general or secretary of state, depending on the state cycle.
- State legislative seats for your district.
- County and municipal offices, school board seats and judicial retention questions.
- Ballot measures, which can be statewide, county or city.
It shows the candidates as they will be printed, including party labels and the order names appear. It does not show who is likely to win, and it is not a voter guide.
Why ballots differ inside one ZIP code
Ballots are built by precinct, and precincts are drawn from overlapping district boundaries that rarely line up with postal geography.
Congressional districts are drawn by population. Each of the 435 must hold roughly the same number of people, so mapmakers split counties, cities and ZIP codes to hit the number. A ZIP code serves mail delivery routes and was never designed to match a political boundary.
The result is ordinary. Two houses on the same street can sit in different congressional districts, and a single ZIP code can span 3 or more. Add state legislative districts, school districts and municipal wards, each drawn separately, and neighbours can receive ballots that differ in several contests.
This is why an address, not a ZIP code, is what an election office needs to give you the right ballot. A ZIP lookup will tell you which congressional districts your ZIP touches, which narrows it down, and your election office confirms which one is yours.
How congressional districts fit the rest of the ballot
The U.S. House race is one line on a ballot that often runs to 20 or more contests. It is drawn on its own map, redrawn after each census, and independent of the boundaries used for your state legislature or your city council.
That independence matters when you research candidates. Your congressional district number tells you nothing about your state house district number, and the two are frequently different. Searching for a state legislative candidate using a congressional district number returns the wrong race.
If you know your congressional district, you can read about the seat, the sitting representative and the filed candidates on this site. Browse all 435 districts, or start from the ZIP lookup.
Before election day
Check your registration first. Registration deadlines fall between 8 and 30 days before election day depending on the state, and some states allow same-day registration at the polls.
Then confirm your polling place. Polling locations change between elections more often than people expect, and voting at the wrong location can mean a provisional ballot.
Poll hours are set by each state. Closing times run from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. local time. Anyone standing in line when polls close is entitled to vote.