Each state has its own law on when processing can begin.

Provisional ballots are kept sealed and separated from other ballots until officials can investigate. 

Well over half the states provide ballot curing for absentee or mail ballots.

Ballot collecting refers to laws that permit someone other than the voter to return a voted ballot on the voter’s behalf.

Election professionals use the phrase ballot duplication to refer to a process for making sure even damaged ballots can be counted.

In “Elections Defined,” a series of short videos, NCSL Director of Elections and Redistricting Wendy Underhill talks about some of the key steps of election administration that you may not have heard of—from ballot curing to...