Voter Registration & Election Information

When deciding where to register, students should consider where they feel more connected and informed about local issues, the impact of their vote, the measures and candidates that will be on their ballot, as well as practical issues like where they will be on Election Day and whether they want to vote in-person or by mail.  

• In Pennsylvania, each address is assigned to a polling location. You can only vote in-person on Election Day at your assigned polling location. 

If you want to vote in-person locally on Election Day, you should register with your local address. Students registering in other counties or states who cannot get to their assigned polling location on Election Day will need to vote by mail. 

Go to the Pennsylvania Voting and Elections website. If you were previously registered at another Pennsylvania address, follow the instructions to update your voter registration. If you were previously registered in another state, complete a Pennsylvania voter registration form, indicating this is a new registration. 

In both cases, be sure to complete the section that asks for the address where you were previously registered, to help keep voter registration rolls up to date. 

Go to your state’s voter information website and follow their instructions about how to check your registration. 

On the Pennsylvania website, the easiest way to check your registration is with your Pennsylvania driver’s license number. If you don’t have a Pennsylvania driver’s license and have to search by your name, the system is very precise – you must type in your name exactly as you wrote it when you registered. 

If your information is not coming up, call your state or county elections office to ask them to help you figure out if you are registered or not.

No. You must be a U.S. Citizen to vote in federal elections. If you have questions about your eligibility to register or vote, contact your state’s elections office.

Changes to your voter registration must be made before the voter registration deadline for your state, if you want them to apply to the upcoming election.

Students with a valid Pennsylvania driver’s license or ID card can use the online voter registration form. Include your driver’s license number where it is requested on the form. We recommend that students who do not have a valid Pennsylvania driver’s license or ID card complete and submit a paper form due to difficulties with the signature component for the online form. You will need to print out the voter registration form, complete it, and return it by mail following the instructions provided on the form. Forms must be received by the voter registration deadline, so do this early!

No, this is a legal document. You should use your legal name. If you need to show ID at the polls on Election Day, be sure the ID you bring has your name listed the same way it is on your voter registration. For questions about names, contact your local or state elections office using the contact information provided below.

Good question! You will need to modify your mailing address a little so it fits on the voter registration form. Here is an example of how you should fill in the address section:

Guidance about how to fill in your address on the voter registration form was created in collaboration with the Centre County Elections Office. To access this guidance for residence halls at University Park, visit Penn State Mail Services’ website. 

• Scroll way down to the bottom of the mailing address section and click on “Voter Registration Mailing Address.” Follow the guidance provided to be sure you fill in your mailing address properly.

We encourage students to include contact information on the registration form so the Elections Office staff can contact you if there are errors on your form or if they need additional information to process your voter registration. If they reach out to you, reply! If there are errors on your form, information they cannot read, or other issues, you will not be registered until they are resolved.

If you are registering in Centre County (where University Park and State College is located), you can call the Centre County Elections Office at 814-355-6703. If you are registering elsewhere in Pennsylvania, you can contact your county’s elections office. Or you can call the state Elections Office at 717-787-5280.

In Pennsylvania, the polls will be open from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. on Election Day. In presidential election years, voter turnout is often high. Plan your day so you have time to wait on line if that’s necessary. If you are in line at 8:00 p.m., you are still allowed to vote. But try not to cut it close! 

You can only vote in-person at your assigned polling location. For example, if you registered to vote with your home address in Philadelphia, the only place you can vote in-person is at your assigned polling location in Philadelphia. Similarly, there are numerous polling locations in State College. Just because you are a Penn State student, this does not automatically mean that you can vote at the HUB polling location – this will only be the case if it is your assigned polling location, which is in turn based on your address.  

It’s important that you check your polling location. If you cannot get to your assigned polling location on Election Day, you can either request, complete, and return a mail-in ballot or you can update your registration to your local address so you can vote in-person locally. However, it’s important that you plan ahead as you must apply for a mail-in ballot or update your voter registration, as applicable, before the relevant deadline (see the critical dates at the top of this page). 

In Pennsylvania, if you are voting at a polling location for the first time, you are required to show ID. We recommend that everyone bring ID to the polls, just in case. Most students use their Penn State student ID, voter registration card from the Elections Office, Pennsylvania driver’s license, or passport as ID.

• Bring the physical ID card. Electronic IDs (including electronic student IDs) may not be accepted.

Visit the Pennsylvania voter information website for a full list of approved IDs in Pennsylvania.

• In Pennsylvania, you must request a mail-in ballot, receive it, complete it, and return it to the county where you are registered by 8:00 p.m. Election Day for the ballot to count. 

Students planning to vote by mail should read the mail-in voting information on the Pennsylvania Voting and Elections website carefully. Voting by mail is easy and secure, but you have to follow all of the instructions for your ballot to count.

We recommend that you request your mail-in ballot as soon as possible. Remember, the ballot needs to get to you, you need to complete it, and you need to return it to the county or state that it came from in time for it to count (based on your state’s rules). 

• In Pennsylvania, mail-in ballots must be received at your county’s elections office by 8:00 p.m. on Election Day. 

A postmark by 8 p.m. November 5 is not sufficient. Don’t wait on this task – request your ballot, complete it, and return it as soon as possible, so your vote will count.

No. Your mail-in ballot must be returned to the county or state that it came from. Local drop boxes are for locally issued mail-in ballots. Carefully follow all of the instructions you receive with your mail-in ballot to be sure you return it on time, to the place it needs to go.