How to Vote

Everything You Need to Vote!

By June 16, rank Charles Allen #1 on your ballot for Ward 6. If you want a refresher on how you can vote, scroll on!

Charles is proud to have worked to make DC one of the easiest places to vote — he led the Council to permanently expand Vote By Mail, created DC’s Fair Elections Program, and pushed the Board of Elections to expand Vote Centers and introduce Automatic Voter Registration at the DMV .

Between now and Tuesday, June 16, there are multiple ways to vote. And given this is DC’s first election with Ranked Choice Voting, you can get all of your questions answered right here.

Understanding Ranked Choice Voting

This is DC’s first election using Ranked Choice Voting, which was passed overwhelmingly by DC voters as Ballot Initiative 83 during the November 2024 General Election. Ranked Choice Voting allows you to vote for your favorite candidate (rank that person #1), and then if you want, rank your second, third, fourth, and fifth choice. The upside of ranked choice voting is that it ensures whoever wins will ultimately receive 50% of the vote.

Key things to know:

  1. You don’t have to rank every candidate. If you only want to rank, say, Charles Allen, then go ahead and rank him #1 and move on!
  2. Ranked choice vote tabulation only begins if no candidates receive 50% or more of the total vote.
  3. If no candidate has 50%, the candidate with the lowest number of votes is knocked out.
  4. If your top candidate gets knocked out, your vote will move to the next highest person you have ranked.
  5. This process continues until someone reaches 50%.

If you’d like to know more, there’s a lot of helpful materials and presentations created by the Board of Elections available here.

How to Vote:

Vote By Mail: Ballots have been mailed to registered voters by the DC Board of Elections. Remember, Charles is running in the Democratic Primary for Ward 6, so you need to be a registered Democrat residing in Ward 6 to see him show up on your ballot.

Haven’t received your ballot? Check the status here.
Want to register for the Democratic Party? Find info below on updating your registration.

Can’t wait to rank Charles #1? You can mail your ballot as soon as you’re ready. The postage is pre-paid. Follow the instructions on the ballot to seal it and you can drop it in the mail.

Use a DC Board of Elections Dropbox: If you want to get it directly to the Board of Elections, there are secure dropboxes that will be accepting completed ballots starting May 22. You can take your ballot to any dropbox at any time until 8 pm on June 16. These dropboxes are collected daily by Board of Elections staff. Full list of locations here.

Vote Early: DC offers in-person voting across the city, including three locations in Ward 6. Early Vote Centers open from Monday, June 8 through Sunday, June 14, between 8:30 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. Registered voters can vote at any Early Vote Center. You can find every location, including hours, here: https://earlyvoting.dcboe.org/

Vote on Election Day: Prefer to exercise your civic duty the old school way? Nice. You can still cast your ballot on Election Day, of course. Registered voters can cast your ballot at any polling location. There are nine polling locations in Ward 6 and if there’s a line at 8 pm, you can vote as long as you stay in line! View the full list here: https://dcboe.org/voters/find-out-where-to-vote/election-day-vote-centers

If this all seems overwhelming, the Board of Elections has a great map with every dropbox, Early Vote Center, and Election Day Vote Center and you can search by your address: https://dcgis.maps.arcgis.com/apps/instant/nearby/index.html?appid=763576faa0b1470ca0559c377cf3b497&sliderDistance=1

Check or Change Your Voter Registration:

Not sure where your registration stands or need to update it? It’s not too late and the Board of Elections can help.

Start here if you think you need to register or update your registration: https://dcboe.org/voters/register-to-vote/register-update-voter-registration