2020 Election

Vote Smarter 2020: Can You Register To Vote On Election Day?

Newsy's Vote Smarter 2020 aims to provide you with all the information you'll need to safely and successfully cast your ballot this year.

Vote Smarter 2020: Can You Register To Vote On Election Day?
Nam Y. Huh / AP

Can you register to vote on Election Day?

"More and more states are offering Election Day registration. This can either be done in some cases at the polling place. In some places like in Michigan, you have to go to a local clerk's office to do that. So it's not necessarily where your regular voting happens," said Matthew Weil, the director of the Elections Project at the Bipartisan Policy Center. 

Twenty states and Washington D.C. allow voters to register on Election Day. Some of those states, like Utah and California, have a deadline that's before the election, but they offer provisional ballots to people who need same-day registration. 

Most other states set a voter registration deadline in early or mid-October, but there are a few exceptions. New Mexico and North Carolina allow same-day registration during early voting, but not on Election Day.