If anything goes wrong at your polling place today, you do not have to figure it out alone. Pick up your phone and call the nonpartisan Election Protection Hotline. Trained volunteers are ready right now to answer your questions and walk you through your rights. Make the call. Then go cast your ballot.
English: 1-866-OUR-VOTE / 1-866-687-8683
Spanish: 1-888-VE-Y-VOTA / 1-888-839-8682
Arabic: 1-844-YALLA-US / 1-844-925-5287
For Bengali, Cantonese, Hindi, Urdu, Korean, Mandarin, Tagalog, Vietnamese, and more: 1-888-API-VOTE / 1-888-274-8683
The Election Protection Hotline, the voter help service run by Election Protection, is the country’s largest nonpartisan voter protection coalition, more than 100 partner organizations led by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.
What it does: trained legal and grassroots volunteers staff the lines live during voting hours on election days and help any voter, free, regardless of party, work through problems on the spot. Typical calls:
Confirming registration status and finding your correct polling place
Voter ID questions and what to do if you are turned away
Mail ballot and absentee problems, including ballots that never arrived
Voting machine failures, long lines, ballot shortages, polling place closures
Reports of voter intimidation, discrimination, or misinformation, which get logged and can be escalated to lawyers on the ground
Each language line is run by a different coalition partner. The English line is the Lawyers’ Committee itself. The Spanish line is the NALEO Educational Fund. The Asian languages line is APIAVote and Asian Americans Advancing Justice. The Arabic line is the Arab American Institute.
Beyond the phones, the coalition puts trained monitors at polling places and collects what voters report, using those records to push election administration fixes and, when needed, litigation.
Since today is Election Day, the lines are staffed live all day while polls are open.
Mitch Jackson, Esq.
Related: Know Your Rights If Federal Agents Show Up Where You Vote
For those voting today, this could not be (more) helpful. You’re very gracious Mitch.
Obviously talk to the polling place supervisor before making any of these phone calls, though. If there’s something going on at their site, they need to know about it. If you can’t resolve things locally, then escalate to outside help lines.