How to read your ballot before you get to the voting booth

The ballot is the only exam in American life that you take with no studying, in front of a line of impatient neighbors, with a pen on a string. Nobody would hire a plumber on those terms. Yet that is how a great many perfectly intelligent people meet the document that decides who sets their property tax rate, who runs the sheriff's office and who sits on the bench that hears their case.

The result is predictable. The voter walks in sure about the top of the ticket, hits the middle with a growing sense of unease, and by the bottom is staring at the name of a water district board candidate he has never heard of, wondering whether leaving it blank is a civic failure or a mercy. It is a fixable problem. The fix takes about an hour at the kitchen table, a week before you vote, and it starts with getting the ballot in your hands early. Here is the walkthrough, step by step.

Why the unread half matters most

Let me give the opposing view its due. Many voters believe that the presidential race and the governor's race are what count, and that the rest is trivia. The races at the bottom are small, the candidates are obscure, and the information is thin. Why not skip them?

Because the government that touches your life daily is the one at the bottom. The county commissioners set the budget for the roads you drive. The school board hires the superintendent who runs your children's schools. The sheriff decides how a county enforces the law. A water district can levy a charge on your property. Judges, in the many states that elect them, decide cases that involve your family and your business. These offices are decided by far fewer votes than a governor's race, so your vote counts for far more there, and the people who study the ballot get an outsized say.

A conservative should care about this twice over. If you believe that government closest to the people is the best government, then you have a duty to choose the people who run it. The voters who skip the bottom of the ballot are handing the choice to whoever bothers to show up.

Here is a hypothetical ballot to show the scale. Picture a county with 17 contests on the ballot in a general election: one U.S. House race, one for governor, two for the state legislature, three county offices (sheriff, commissioner, assessor), five judicial contests (two judges running and three up for retention), one school board contest, one water district contest and three ballot measures. That adds up: 1 plus 1 plus 2 plus 3 plus 5 plus 1 plus 1 plus 3 equals 17. Of those, the three county offices, five judicial contests, school board and water district make 3 plus 5 plus 1 plus 1, or 10 contests about local government and the courts. Ten of seventeen. That is the unread half.

At three minutes of homework per contest, 17 times 3 equals 51 minutes. Less than a television drama. Let's get started.

Get the ballot and learn its layout

Step 1: Get your sample ballot

A sample ballot is a preview of the ballot you will see, for your precinct, before election day.

1. Go to your county election office's website, or your state's voter lookup tool. Search for your county's name plus "elections" or "sample ballot."
2. Enter your address, if there is a lookup. Ballots differ by precinct, because your legislative district, school district and special districts depend on where you live. A neighbor two streets over may have a different set of contests.
3. Check the date. A sample ballot for the primary is not the one for the general. Make sure you are reading the right election.
4. Print it, or save a copy. Many states mail a sample ballot or voter guide, so look in your mailbox as well.
5. Call the election office if you cannot find it. The staff will tell you how.

A sample ballot is not the official ballot. A few late changes happen, such as a withdrawn candidate. But it is close enough to study.

Step 2: Learn the layout

Ballots are organized by the level of government, usually from the top down:

1. Federal offices. President in a presidential year, U.S. Senate and U.S. House as they come up.
2. State offices. Governor and other statewide officers, the state legislature, sometimes the state supreme court.
3. County offices. Commissioners, sheriff, clerk, assessor, treasurer, prosecutor, coroner. The exact list depends on your state.
4. City or town offices. Mayor, council.
5. School boards and other districts.
6. Judges.
7. Ballot measures.

Take a highlighter and mark every contest you do not know. That is your homework list. If a contest says "vote for no more than three," note that, because it is a multi-seat race and the rules for marking it are different.

Read the contests

Step 3: Partisan and nonpartisan sections

In a partisan race, each candidate's party is printed next to the name. In a nonpartisan race, there is no label. School boards, many city councils, many county offices and, in a number of states, judges are elected without party labels.

Do not mistake the lack of a label for a lack of politics. Nonpartisan does not mean nonideological, and a council member who never mentions a party can still hold views on spending and growth that affect your taxes. The way those races work, and why Republicans should study them, is in nonpartisan on the ballot does not mean nonideological in the council chamber. And how to win a school board seat when nobody else is paying attention shows how much one of these seats can decide.

So how do you find out who the nonpartisan candidates are? Look at three sources:

• The candidate's own website or mailer, for what they say they will do.
• Local news coverage and forums, for how they answer questions.
• Your own county party and trusted local groups, many of which publish voter guides. These are opinion, so read them as such, and compare more than one.

Check the filing, too. The candidate's campaign finance report, if one is required, is public. Who funds a candidate often tells you who they will answer to, and how to read a campaign finance report the way an auditor would explains how to read one.

Step 4: Primary ballots and party rules

In a primary, the ballot is different. Depending on your state, you might receive only your party's ballot, you might choose a party's ballot at the polls, or you might see all the parties' candidates on one ballot. Who may vote in the Republican primary depends on your state's rules and your registration, and Can I vote in the Republican primary? Your registration questions answered answers those questions. The case for always voting in it is in Why every Republican owes the primary election a vote, every time.

Step 5: Judges and retention elections

Judges appear on the ballot in different ways, depending on the state.

• Elected judges. In many states, voters choose judges in partisan or nonpartisan elections.
• Retention elections. In other states, a judge is first chosen through an appointment process and later faces voters in a yes-or-no vote on whether to keep the seat, with no opponent. The model, known as the Missouri Plan, was adopted by Missouri voters in 1940 and copied in a number of other states. The question reads something like "Shall Judge Smith be retained in office?"
• Federal judges do not appear on the ballot. Article III of the Constitution gives them life tenure during good behavior.

The oddity of judicial races is that the candidates are restricted in what they can say. Canons of judicial ethics limit what a judge may promise about future cases, so you will not get a campaign platform. You have to use other information: the judge's record and public opinions, the rulings that are public, and what the state's court system website and bar association disclose. Read what your own side's voter guide says, and then read at least one other.

If you know nothing about a judge on a retention question, you have a choice. You may vote the way your best information leads, or you may skip it. Both are legal. Skipping with eyes open is better than a guess.

Step 6: Special districts

Special districts are local governments with a single job: water, fire protection, hospitals, libraries, parks, soil and water conservation, mosquito control, community colleges, cemeteries. The Census Bureau counts them in the tens of thousands across the United States, and many have elected boards and the power to tax or to charge fees.

These are the races where a handful of votes elects the people who set a rate you pay every month. They are also the races where turnout is lowest, so an informed voter has outsized influence. For each one, ask three questions:

1. What does this district do, and what does it charge me?
2. Who is on the board now, and what have they voted for?
3. Who is running, and why?

The district's website, the sample ballot or the county clerk can tell you. If you cannot find any information at all, that is itself information.

Step 7: Ballot measures

Measures are questions put straight to the voter: a tax levy, a bond for a new school, a change to the state constitution, a repeal of a law. They are an exercise in careful reading, and initiatives, referendums and amendments, how ballot measures really work explains how they get on the ballot and why the wording matters.

For each measure:

1. Read the ballot title and the summary, then read the full text if you can. The official summary is written by an official body, and the full text is the thing that becomes law.
2. Find the fiscal note, if there is one, an estimate of what the measure costs or saves.
3. Ask what a "yes" does and what a "no" does. On some measures a "yes" repeals something and a "no" keeps it. Do not assume.
4. Look at who supports and opposes it, and who is paying for each side.

If a measure is confusing after all that, it may have been written to be confusing. A "no" on something you do not understand is a respectable vote.

Step 8: Straight-ticket voting, where it exists

Some states allow a straight-ticket option: one mark votes for every candidate of a party. Several states have eliminated it, and others keep it, so check your sample ballot. Two warnings if your state offers it:

• It may not cover nonpartisan contests, judicial retention questions or ballot measures. You may still have to mark those individually.
• It can lock you into a candidate you have not looked at. If you have done your homework, you may prefer to vote each race on its own.

Mark it, check it, cast it

Step 9: Undervotes, overvotes and marking the ballot

An undervote happens when you skip a contest. It is legal, and no one can force you to vote in every race. But it is a lost voice. If you skip a contest because you did not have time to learn about it, that is a problem the homework above can fix.

An overvote happens when you mark more candidates than the contest allows. In most places, an overvote in one contest means that contest does not count, though the rest of your ballot still does. At a polling place, a scanner will usually warn you and give you a chance to fix it. On a mail ballot, there is no scanner at your kitchen table, so read each contest's instructions.

To mark the ballot:

1. Use the pen provided, or the pen the instructions allow.
2. Fill in the oval, or complete the arrow, exactly as the example on the ballot shows.
3. Do not make stray marks.
4. If you make a mistake, ask for a replacement. Most places allow you to return a spoiled ballot and get a new one. Do not cross out and write over.
5. Write-in candidates require both the name and, often, filling in the oval. Check your state's rule.

Bring your marked sample ballot to the polling place as a cheat sheet. Most states allow it, though a few restrict phones or photography in the booth. Ask the election office what is permitted.

Step 10: Verify before you cast

Before you cast your ballot, look at it one more time.

• On a paper ballot, read down the page once more.
• On a touchscreen machine, read the summary screen, which lists every choice, and fix anything wrong before you press the final button. Many machines produce a paper record that you can read.
• On a mail ballot, check the envelope requirements, such as a signature, a witness or an ID number, and the deadline. Know whether your state requires the ballot to arrive by election day or only to be postmarked. If your state lets you track the ballot, use it.

If you want to understand how the process is watched, lawful poll watching, what you may see, what you may say, what to report covers the rules for observers, and serving as an election judge, the questions people ask before signing up explains what the people at the table do.

What a provisional ballot is

Sometimes a voter shows up and the poll book does not list their name, or the voter lacks required identification, or the voter's eligibility is in question. In those cases, the voter may be offered a provisional ballot. The Help America Vote Act of 2002 requires states to offer one to a voter who says they are registered and eligible in the jurisdiction in which they wish to vote.

A provisional ballot is a real ballot, set aside in a special envelope. After election day, election officials check whether the voter was eligible, and if so, the ballot is counted, in whole or in part. The rules for what you must do afterward, such as bringing an ID to the election office within a few days, vary by state. Federal law also requires states to provide a free way, such as a phone number or website, to find out whether your provisional ballot counted. Ask for the instructions when you cast it, and write down the number.

Do not leave without voting a provisional ballot if you are sure you are eligible and are told there is a problem. It is better to cast it than not to cast it.

The bottom line

• Get your sample ballot a week early from the county election office, and mark every contest you do not know.
• Spend the time on the offices closest to home: county, school board, judges and special districts. They are decided by fewer votes and touch your life most.
• Read every ballot measure's title, summary, fiscal note and "yes" versus "no" effect, and vote no on what you cannot understand.
• Fill in each mark completely, watch for overvotes, review the ballot before you cast it, and know your state's rules for straight-ticket voting and mail ballots.
• If your name is missing from the poll book, ask for a provisional ballot and get the instructions to check that it counted.