The 2026 WhoWhatWhy Voting Guide

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The 2026 midterms will be unlike any other election in history. The stakes are extremely high. For two years, a GOP-controlled Congress has rubber stamped just about anything Donald Trump did, abdicated its constitutional responsibilities, and refused to conduct any kind of oversight over the most lawless administration ever.

Now, faced with losing those majorities, the White House and Republicans have shown that they are willing to go to extreme lengths to stay in power.

Donald Trump has made it clear that he wants the federal government to play an outsized (and unconstitutional) role in administering the election, and an unprecedented mid-decade gerrymandering offensive has disenfranchised millions of Americans and will lead to a purge of Black lawmakers.

Some of the president’s efforts have fallen short, such as his attempt to give the federal government, via the United States Postal Service, a say in which voters can vote by mail. Others, like allowing states to use a controversial and error-prone database to determine the eligibility of voters, have (somewhat) succeeded.

And then there are those that we do not yet know about but that seem inevitable.

They could come in the form of ICE agents stationed at polling places to harass Hispanic voters, or Trump trying to grant himself unprecedented emergency powers under the guise of wanting to prevent “voter fraud,” even though he has never provided any evidence showing that this is a genuine problem that has ever compromised even a single US election.

The bottom line is that Americans will have to anticipate that, in this year’s midterms, they won’t necessarily be able to just show up and cast their ballots.

To help them make sure that they get to vote and that their vote counts, we put together this guide.

• The first thing voters should do is to make sure that they are registered to vote in the state where they reside. In light of GOP-led voter roll purges, that is not a given.

Americans can check their voter registration status by going here or here.

If their registration has lapsed somehow, then they should take steps to remedy this immediately. And, of course, those who have never signed up to vote should do so now.

Both of the links above will help individuals do so and also provide information on polling place locations and early voting opportunities, which forms of ID they may need, and tracking a mail-in ballot.

• Speaking of voting by mail, while this is such a convenient way to vote that the president routinely avails himself of it, he does not want others to be able to use this method to cast a ballot.

Therefore, if voters can use a drop box instead of returning their ballot through the mail, or cast their vote in person, they should try to do so. If they are not able to access a drop box, which some red states have thinned out to a single one per county, then they should go ahead and vote by mail as early as possible. 

• We also advise Americans not to wait until the last minute. If they can vote early, then they should do so to ensure that they won’t be disenfranchised by some 11th-hour stunt.

Voters can find out here or here when and how they can vote in their state ahead of Election Day. The vast majority of states provide this option, and in some of them, voting has already begun.

• Once voters have checked that they are (still) registered and made a plan for when and how to vote, we encourage them to share this information with everyone they know and urge them to act as though someone is trying to take this most fundamental right away from them. 

Because that’s exactly what is happening, and these midterms may be the last best chance for Americans to make their voices heard.

Related: Push Comes to Shove: The Unspeakable Threat to Election 2026