Election Day is Tuesday, November 6, 2018, and The New York Public Library is here to help you find all of the resources you need to be an informed voter. 

Here is what you'll need to know to go out and vote.

• Voter Registration
• Registration Status
• Find Your Polling Place
• Find Your Districts 
and Current Representatives
• Research the Issues
• Research the Candidates and Ballot Proposals
• Research Campaign Finance and Government Information
• Podcasts to Inspire and Inform
• Find Election Results

Voter Registration

While the voter registration deadline for the 2018 midterm election has already passed, it's never to early to register for the next election. 

To register to vote in the City of New York, you must:

•     Be a citizen of the United States (Includes those persons born in Puerto Rico, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands).
•     Be a New York City resident for at least 30 days.
•     Be 18 years of age before the next election.
•     Not be serving a jail sentence or be on parole for a felony conviction.
•     Not be adjudged mentally incompetent by a court.
•     Not claim the right to vote elsewhere (outside the City of New York).

​Register to vote in New York for the first time, or update name, address, or party affiliation:

In Person • By Mail • Online

Registration Status

Not sure if you're registered? Check voter status at NYSVoter Public Information - Voter Registration Search.

NYS's Voter Bill of Rights from LWVNY.org

Find Your Polling Place

• General Election—November 6, 2018
• Polls open 6 AM to 9 PM
• Poll Site Locator & Sample Ballot Display
• Voter Phone Bank: 1-866-VOTE-NYC

Find Your Districts 
and Current Representatives

Who Represents Me? from the Graduate Center, City University of New York by the Center for Urban Research in partnership with the League of Women Voters of the City of New York, will help you identify your reps.
Enter your address to find your local, state, and federal representatives.

Federal: The White House • U.S. Senate • U.S. House of Representatives

State: NY State Governor • NY State Attorney General • New York State Comptroller • New York State Senate • New York State Assembly

City-Wide: New York City Mayor • New York City Public Advocate • New York City Comptroller • New York City Council

Boroughs :Bronx Borough President • Bronx District Attorney • Brooklyn Borough President • Brooklyn District Attorney • Manhattan Borough President • Manhattan District Attorney • Queens Borough President • Queens District Attorney • Staten Island Borough President • Staten Island District Attorney

Research the Issues

Vote Smart bills itself as "the voter's self-defense system." It contains voting records, biographies, issue positions, interest group ratings, speeches, and campaign finances for all politicians. It also features "VoteEasy," a tool that lets you compare your personal views to those of candidates running for office.

Factcheck.org, a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania, is a nonpartisan, nonprofit consumer advocate for voters that aims "to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics." The site monitors the factual accuracy of what is said by major U.S. political players in the form of TV ads, debates, speeches, interviews, and news releases.

Public Agenda aims to help communities and the nation solve tough problems through research, engagement, and communication.

The Opposing Viewpoints series (available in print and online with your library card) contains information on nearly 5,000 current social topics in the form of primary source documents, statistics, websites, and multimedia.

Research the Candidates & Ballot Proposals 

New York City Campaign Finance Board 2018 Voter Guide is the guide from the Campaign Finance Board, a "nonpartisan, independent city agency that enhances the role of New York City residents in elections. The CFB’s mission is to increase voter participation and awareness, provide campaign finance information to the public, enable more citizens to run for office, strengthen the role of small contributors, and reduce the potential for actual or perceived corruption."

Vote411, the online voters' guide from the League of Women Voters, allows you to type in your address to see the races on your ballot. Candidates' positions can be compared side-by-side, and you may print out your preferences as a reminder and take it with you to the polls on Election Day.

The Internet Archive launched TV News Search and Borrow in 2012 "to enhance the capabilities of journalists, scholars, teachers, librarians, civic organizations, and other engaged citizens" by repurposing closed captioning "to enable users to search, quote and borrow U.S. TV news programs." It contains 1,074,000 news programs collected over 4+ years from national U.S. networks and stations in San Francisco and Washington D.C.

Research Campaign Finance and Government Information

The Federal Election Commission "administers and enforces the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) - the statute that governs the financing of federal elections. The duties of the FEC, which is an independent regulatory agency, are to disclose campaign finance information, to enforce the provisions of the law such as the limits and prohibitions on contributions, and to oversee the public funding of Presidential elections."

OpenSecrets.org: Center for Responsive Politics is "a nonpartisan guide to money's influence on U.S. elections and public policy."

NYOpenGovernment.com is an effort by the state Attorney General’s office to "promote citizens' right to know and to monitor governmental decision-making. It allows you to easily access statewide government information, which until now has been scattered or difficult to retrieve."

The Sunlight Foundation has numerous project websites and apps to help you track influence, discover the inner workings of congress, and track legislation and public policy.

Follow the Money: The National Institute on Money in State Politics is a "nonpartisan, nonprofit organization revealing the influence of campaign money on state-level elections and public policy in all 50 states. Provides a campaign-finance database and issue analyses." Encourages "transparency and promotes independent investigation of state-level campaign contributions by journalists, academic researchers, public-interest groups, government agencies, policymakers, students, and the public at large."

Congressional Universe Database provides comprehensive access to U.S. legislative information from Congressional Information Service, Inc. and is available on-site at the research libraries. Contains Congressional Publications, Legislative Histories, Bills & Laws, Members & Committees, Regulations, and Daily Congressional Record & Rules.

Podcasts to Inspire and Inform

Subscribe to the Library's podcasts for special episodes about the history of elections and current debates on voting and voter supression. 

Find Election Results

Federal • New York State • New York City

These resources and information are adapted from Election 2016: Register, Research, and Vote by Lauren Lampasone.