In some states, you really can vote twice … or even three times … and it’s legal.
But it will only count once.
While the process little known and rarely used, some states do allow voters to change their early or absentee ballots with no questions asked.
The issue has received new attention because of the expected record number of early votes that will be cast in the 2016 presidential election. Some estimates are that up to 40% of voters will have cast their ballots before the polls open Tuesday, November 8.
In most of the states, voters who have already cast ballots need to show up to the polls on Election Day, have their prior vote nullified, and revote in-person to have their new vote — and only the new vote — counted.
If you live in Wisconsin, you can change your mind up to three times before your official ballot is cast and counted.
“We would let the individual, the voter, vote again and document that this was their second ballot issued. We’d keep a record of that, so they would only have up to three opportunities,” Oshkosh City Clerk Pam Ubrig told WBAY.
But that doesn’t mean many people actually take advantage of the rules. The Oshkosh City Clerk’s office told CNN on Monday that no one has actually tried to use their three chances yet.
Among the states that do allow voters to change their early ballot after it’s been cast are: Wisconsin; Minnesota; Michigan; Pennsylvania; New York; Connecticut; and Mississippi.
While the procedures differ among states, most election-related websites run by the states do not make the rules for changing an early or absentee ballot easy to find.
In some battleground districts, fickle voters are out of luck. Voting more than once is prohibited in Florida, North Carolina, Ohio, and Arizona, among others, election officials in those states told CNN.
