Voting in the 2012 general elections

Note: Election information listed on this page does not pertain to 2012 presidential elections. For more about Ballotpedia's areas of coverage, click here.

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2012 Elections

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Information about Voting

Election Dates • Early voting • Absentee voting • Voting in 2012 Primaries • Voting on November 6, 2012 Poll Opening and Closing Times Signature filing deadlines  Open Primary • Closed Primary • Blanket Primary

This page contains voter registration information that was relevant to the 2012 general elections.

The information was specific to voting at the state-level for Congressional, State Executive, State Legislative and other down-ballot offices. Requirements for voting in the presidential election may have varied slightly.

The table below contains the following information:

• Registration Deadline
• Residency Requirements
• Voter ID Requirements

State-by-state breakdown

• The voter registration deadline for all but one state occurred in October.
  • North Dakota had no voter registration.
• All states had sort of residency requirement in order to vote in the state.
  • 32 states simply stated "residency" in one form or another.
  • 14 states had a 30-day residency requirement.
  • Kentucky and Wisconsin had a 28-day residency requirement.
  • Kansas had a 21-day residency requirement.
  • Minnesota had a 20-day residency requirement.
• 32 states required some form of identification when voting.
  • 7 states did not require ID: California, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Hampshire, and North Carolina
  • 7 states sometimes required voter IDs: Maryland, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, New Jersey, Iowa, and Minnesota.
  • Texas and Wisconsin had new photo ID laws that were temporarily blocked due to court action.
  • Oregon and Washington used mail-in voting systems.

Voting requirements

Voting in Primary Elections 2012 Information

State	Registration Deadline	Days before the General Election	Residency Requirements	Voter ID Required	Same day registration
Alabama	10/26/2012	11	Resident	Yes	No
Alaska	10/7/2012	30	Resident	Yes	No
Arizona	10/8/2012 (October 9th at midnight)	29	Resident	Yes	No
Arkansas	10/8/2012	30	Resided in Arkansas at least 30 days prior to the election	Yes	No
California	10/22/2012	15	Resident	No	No
Colorado	10/8/2012	29	Colorado resident and had lived in current precinct for at least 30 days before the election	Yes	No
Connecticut	10/23/2012	14	Resident of a Connecticut town	Maybe (First time voters only)	No
Delaware	10/13/2012	24	Resident (proof required)	Yes	No
Florida	10/9/2012**	28	Legal resident of Florida	Yes (photo and signature)	No
Georgia	10/9/2012**	28	A legal resident of Georgia and of the county	Yes	No
Hawaii	10/8/2012	29	Resident	Yes	No
Idaho	10/12/2012	25	Resided in Idaho and in the county for 30 days	Yes	Yes
Illinois	10/9/2012**	28	Resident of the precinct at least 30 days prior to election	No	No
Indiana	10/9/2012**	28	Resident	Yes	No
Iowa	10/27/2012	10	Resident	Maybe (Showing ID is sometimes necessary)	Yes
Kansas	10/16/2012	21	Resident for at least 21 days prior to election	Yes	No
Kentucky	10/9/2012**	28	Kentucky resident for at least 28 days before election day	Yes	No
Louisiana	10/31/2012	30	Resided in Louisiana and in parish	Yes	No
Maine	10/16/2012	21	Established and maintained a residence in the municipality	No	Yes
Maryland	10/16/2012	21	Resident	Maybe (First time voters may be required to show ID at the polls)	No
Massachusetts	10/17/2012	20	Resident	No	No
Michigan	10/9/2012**	28	Resident of Michigan and the city or township	Yes	No
Minnesota	10/16/2012 (Voters may register at the polls on Election Day)	21	Resided in Minnesota for 20 days immediately preceding Election Day	Maybe (Voters registering on Election Day will need to bring and present ID)	Yes
Mississippi	10/6/2012	31	Resident of Mississippi and had lived in city or town for at least 30 days prior to election	Yes	No
Missouri	10/10/2012	27	Resident	Yes	No
Montana	10/9/2012**	28	Resided in Montana for at least 30 days	Yes	Yes
Nebraska	10/19/2012	18	Resided in Nebraska	Maybe (First time voters may need to present ID)	No
Nevada	10/16/2012	21	Resident of Nevada for 30 days before the election	No	No
New Hampshire	10/27/2012	10	There was no minimum period of time required to have lived in New Hampshire before being allowed to register	No	Yes
New Jersey	10/16/2012	21	Resident of New Jersey and county at least 30 days prior to the election	Maybe (If voters do not presented ID when registering, ID is required to vote)	No
New Mexico	10/9/2012**	28	Resident	Yes	No
New York	10/17/2012 (Deadline by mail--postmarked 10/12/2012, received by 10/17/2012. In person registration available until 10/26/2012)	20	Lived at address at least 30 days before an election	Yes	No
North Carolina	10/12/2012	25	Prior to voting, must have been a resident of the county for at least 30 days prior to election day.	No	Yes (during Early/Absentee voting)
North Dakota	No voter registration***	N/A	Resident of North Dakota for 30 days prior to the election	Yes	N/A
Ohio	10/9/2012**	28	Resident of Ohio for at least 30 days immediately before the election	Yes	No
Oklahoma	10/12/2012	25	Resident	Yes	No
Oregon	10/16/2012	21	Resident	Oregon used vote by mail system --they compared signatures to the registration signatures	No
Pennsylvania	10/9/2012**	28	Resident of Pennsylvania and the election district at least 30 days before the election	Maybe (First time voters may need to present ID)	No
Rhode Island	10/7/2012	30	A legal resident of Rhode Island	Yes	No
South Carolina	10/6/2012	31	Resident of South Carolina, county and precinct	Yes	No
South Dakota	10/22/2012	15	Resident	Yes	No
Tennessee	10/8/2012 (Monday after the weekend in which 30 days prior to the election falls)	29	Resident	Yes	No
Texas	10/9/2012**	28	Resident of Texas and county in which registered	No (Photo ID law was under federal lawsuit)	No
Utah	10/9/2012(10/22/2012 or 15 days prior to election if registering in person)**	28	Resident of Utah for at least 30 days	Yes	No
Vermont	10/31/2012	6	Resident of Vermont and town	Yes	No
Virginia	10/15/2012	22	Resident	Yes	No
Washington	10/8/2012 (In person first time voting registration deadline is 10/29/2012)	29	Resident	Washington has a vote by mail system	No
West Virginia	10/16/2012	21	Resident of West Virginia and the county in which registering	Yes	No
Wisconsin	10/17/2012 (Pre registration date. Voters may register at the polls the day of the election.)	20+++	Must have lived in Wisconsin for at least 28 days, and had no current intention of moving.	Yes (Photo ID law was under temporary court injunction)	Yes
Wyoming	10/22/2012	15	Resident of Wyoming and the precinct	Yes	Yes
***North Dakota was the only state in the United States which did not require some form of voter registration +++Wisconsin allowed same-day voter registration Note: Some states had a voter registration deadline 30 days prior to the election, but because this may have fallen on a weekend and Columbus Day was on Monday, October 8th, extended the deadline to October 9, 2012.

Issues

Washington State voter registration form.
Source:Washington Secretary of State's blog "From our corner"

2012

Department of Justice sues Georgia over voting deadlines

On June 29, 2012, the Department of Justice filed a suit in federal court against the state of Georgia, alleging that service members, their family members and overseas civilian voters won’t have time to vote by absentee ballot in runoff elections, if they are required. According to the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (dead link) (UOCAVA), states were required to transmit all validly requested ballots to UOCAVA voters at least 45 days before an election, unless a hardship exemption was obtained, for which Georgia failed to file. However, this conflicted with the timeline for runoff elections, in which the primary runoff, by law, was required to be held 21 days after the regular or special primary election, and if a runoff was required after the Nov. 6 general election, it was to be held 28 days later, on Dec. 4, which also wouldn’t provide the required 45 days.

As part of the lawsuit, the Department of Justice asked Georgia to "extend the ballot receipt deadline to Aug. 31 for these voters, to send ballots by express delivery as soon as possible before the Aug. 21 runoff election, and inform UOCAVA voters no later than July 7 of their right to request a state write-in absentee ballot or their official absentee ballot for any runoff election by downloading it from the Internet, by email, or by fax."

See also

• 2012 elections
• 2012 election dates
• Voting in the 2012 primary elections
• State by State Voter ID Laws