Provisional ballot

Florida's 2026 midterm elections take place Nov. 3, with polls open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. statewide. Voters must present a current, valid photo ID with a signature; those without matching signatures need a secondary ID, and voters lacking acceptable ID or unverified registration may cast a provisional ballot, counted if documentation is supplied within two days. Mail-in ballots must reach election offices or drop boxes by 7 p.m. on Election Day, as postmarks no longer count. The registration deadline was Oct. 5.

In Ohio, voters cast ballots in a closely watched governor's race alongside all 99 state House seats and 17 state Senate seats; Cuyahoga County's 269 polling locations opened smoothly, with more than 1.73 million Ohioans having already voted early statewide. Georgia also held Election Day voting Nov. 3, with polls open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and anyone in line by closing guaranteed a ballot. Georgians chose a U.S. senator, all 14 U.S. House members, governor, and other statewide and local offices, with unofficial results expected after polls close.

Fort Bend County, Texas voters cast ballots Tuesday under heightened scrutiny after a technical glitch disrupted every voting site during the May primary runoff. County officials attributed that failure to a human error—an employee uploaded the wrong file—which took roughly three hours to resolve and forced some voters to use provisional ballots. The elections administrator has since said the county added oversight measures and vendor safeguards, tested ahead of the August and November elections, and restructured staff responsibilities tied to the error. Officials also hope to replace the current voter registration system by next May. Voters interviewed expressed cautious hope that the problems have been fixed.

Before Ohio officials sought a federal investigation into Black Fork Strategies (also known as Field Forward Ohio), Cuyahoga County election workers had already flagged questionable voter-registration changes tied to the group in 2022. Some voters found their addresses altered without consent; officials verified signatures and accepted nine provisional ballots, while correcting records for other affected voters before they cast ballots. Forms were hard to catch because many included accurate birth dates and partial Social Security numbers. The county's elections board referred Black Fork to the secretary of state's Public Integrity Division in 2023, and by 2024 had pushed registration groups to add worker identifiers to submitted forms.

Cuyahoga County, Ohio election records show that officials accepted provisional ballots from nine voters in the November 2022 election after voter-registration organization Black Fork Strategies submitted forms that changed addresses without voters' knowledge. Officials verified the ballots by matching signatures against older registration records, and two additional voters had addresses corrected before voting early. The county board referred the matter to the Ohio secretary of state's office in 2023.

The issue has resurfaced after Secretary of State Frank LaRose asked the FBI and federal prosecutors to investigate new allegations that Black Fork, also known as Field Forward Ohio, submitted thousands of registration forms late in Summit and Hamilton counties ahead of a recent deadline.

Harris County election officials are processing a backlog of more than 75,000 delayed voter registration records after a software error at the Texas Department of Public Safety disrupted the transfer of registration data. DPS says a third-party vendor's software update in October 2025 corrupted parts of registration records submitted through its online driver's license services, leaving the Secretary of State's office unable to fully process them. DPS discovered the issue in late August, fixed it Sept. 13, and resent corrected files, which the state confirmed receiving Sept. 18.

Harris County began receiving roughly 108,000 records Sept. 22-23, about 33,000 of which were duplicates. County officials say most updates have been processed, with about 11,000 records still needing review before early voting starts Oct. 19. The state says qualifying DPS transactions completed by the Oct. 5 registration deadline will count as timely regardless of processing delays. Voting rights advocates say similar delays were reported for months and are pressing officials for assurances the problem won't recur. Voters are urged to verify their registration status before Election Day, Nov. 3.

Voters in Cinnaminson Township, New Jersey, narrowly approved a $57.7 million school bond referendum in the Sept. 15 special election, according to unofficial results, passing by just nine votes (1,744 to 1,735) after mail and provisional ballots were counted. Final certification by county election officials is still pending. It is the largest bond measure in the South Jersey district's history.

A companion $18.3 million second question, which would have funded new classrooms at Memorial School, a gym at Eleanor Rush Elementary, and a synthetic stadium field at Cinnaminson High School, was rejected 1,927 to 1,536. The approved bond will fund infrastructure improvements, classroom additions, HVAC upgrades, and bathroom renovations, adding roughly $399 a year in taxes on an average-assessed home; the state will contribute $16.8 million. Superintendent Stephen Cappello called the result a sign that "every single vote truly matters."

Separately, Clementon voters rejected a $13.5 million bond for an early childhood center. Collingswood and Bordentown Regional have bond questions planned for the Nov. 3 general election.