Understand your ballot measures with AI before you vote

Who is this for?

This page is for someone who wants a ballot measure in plain English before they vote. You paste the official text, and the chat says what a yes vote and a no vote would do, quoting that text, while you decide.

This is not a recommendation. It is not a campaign. It is not legal advice, and it is not an official election office. The chat must not tell you how to vote, which side is better, what to believe, or which candidate to pick. If a reply does any of those, delete that part. A candidate's biography is a different job from a measure. This page does not rank candidates. If you paste a candidate section by mistake, tell the chat to skip it.

The date of the next federal general election is a published fact, and it is not the date of every election you might see. The Federal Election Commission's election and voting page says Tuesday, November 3, 2026, is the next regularly scheduled federal General Election date. The same page says elections are primarily governed by state law and administered at the state and local level, and that the best resource for voter registration and for polling locations and hours is your state or local election office. The FEC also says it administers federal campaign finance law and has no jurisdiction over the laws relating to voting. It says each state sets its own primary and runoff dates, and that dates listed for scheduled future elections are tentative and subject to change. Read the date on your election office's page for the election printed on your ballot.

A sure paragraph is not a checked fact. The habit of marking what came from the text is Catch facts the AI made up.

What do you need before you start?

Gather the official wording before you open a chat. The chat does not have your ballot.

• The official text of one measure, from your sample ballot or from the voter guide published by your state or county election office. Vote.gov's guide to voting says many election offices post sample ballots online, and some also provide information online or by mail about candidates and ballot measures. It says to check your state or local election website. USAGov's sample-ballot page says a sample ballot shows the elections, the candidates, and any ballot measures on your real ballot, and that your state may mail one or let you download one from its election site. The same page says some nonprofit organizations produce unofficial sample ballots that may not look the same as what you will see when you vote. For this guide, paste the official text.
• The official voter guide page for that same measure, if your election office publishes one. USAGov says voter guides give background on candidates and ballot measures, and that ballot measures are specific questions or issues you can approve or reject. Use the guide from your election office. If a booklet came from a campaign or a committee, label it as that and do not treat it as the official text.
• The name of your state, and your county or city if the ballot is local. That is enough to tell two ballots apart. Your street address, voter ID number, and Social Security number stay out of the chat.
• The official pages you will open after the reading, for registration, your polling place, and deadlines. Start with Vote.gov, Vote.gov's registration page, USAGov's how-to-vote page, and USAGov's state and local election offices. Rules vary by state. The election office is the source of truth.

You do not need a paid AI plan. You do need the official text. A chat that "knows the ballot" and has not seen your measure is guessing. Keep your data private with AI.

How do you get the official measure text?

Open the sample ballot or the voter guide from your state or county election office, and copy one measure before you ask for plain English. The title, the question, and any official summary or full text the election office printed are the paste.

A sentence from a mailer, a neighbor, or the chat's memory is not that paste.

Vote.gov's registration page says voter registration deadlines vary by state and territory, there is no national voter registration deadline, in some states the last day to register is 30 days before Election Day, and in other states you can register on Election Day. Select your state on that page. The state or county page is the deadline that applies to you. Do not type a deadline from memory into the notes you are about to paste.

If the voter guide prints both a short summary and a longer official text, copy both, and label which is which. If you only have the question as it will appear on the ballot, paste that and write ONLY THE BALLOT QUESTION at the top. The chat is not allowed to fill the rest from memory.

Leave the header's street address, barcode, and voter ID number out. A county name is enough. If the PDF is long, do one measure. The next measure waits until this one checks out. That pause is Check each phase before the next one.

How do you explain a yes vote and a no vote from the text?

Paste one measure and ask what a yes vote would do and what a no vote would do, with each line tied to a quote. A translation that adds an effect is not a translation.

You are helping me read one ballot measure. This is not legal advice and not a recommendation. Do not tell me how to vote. Do not say which side is better. Do not tell me what to believe. Do not pick a candidate. Do not rank candidates.

State: [state]. County or city: [name, or NOT A LOCAL MEASURE].
Where I copied this: [sample ballot or voter guide from my state or county election office]. Date on that document: [date printed, or NOT PRINTED].

I pasted the official text below. Use only those words. If I labeled a section OFFICIAL SUMMARY or FULL TEXT or BALLOT QUESTION, keep those labels.

For a yes vote, and then for a no vote:
- Quote the line you used
- Then say it in plain English
If the text does not say what that vote would do, write NOT IN THE TEXT. Do not fill it from memory.
If a word is defined in the text, use that definition. If it is not defined, write NOT DEFINED IN THE TEXT.
Skip any candidate names. This task is the measure only.
Then stop.

[paste one measure]

Read the quotes with your finger on the official text. If the plain English says "this will not raise taxes" and you cannot find that sentence, delete it. The missing sentence is the whole mistake.

Three places to use the same reading. Copy the one that matches you, fill the brackets, and send only that.

Work, when you need a plain briefing of the official text and you will not tell anyone how to vote. If your employer has a rule about political activity at work, follow that rule.

Help me brief myself on the official text of one ballot measure. This is not legal advice. Do not tell me how to vote. Do not write talking points for either side. Do not say which outcome is better.

I will not send this to coworkers as a recommendation. If my employer has a rule about political activity, I will follow that rule. You do not know that rule.
Source: [sample ballot or election-office voter guide]. Date printed: [date, or NOT PRINTED].
Text is below.

Make two short blocks, YES and NO.
Each block is a quote from the text, then one plain sentence.
If the text does not say what that vote would do, write NOT IN THE TEXT.
Do not mention candidates. Then stop.

[paste one measure]

School, when a teacher assigned the official text. You write anything you turn in. Follow your teacher's rules.

This is for learning. Do not write anything I will turn in. Follow my teacher's rules. Do not tell me how to vote or what to believe.

The measure my teacher assigned, copied from the official text:
[paste]

Ask me to explain, in my own words, what a yes vote would do and what a no vote would do.
Wait for my explanation. Then tell me which sentence matches the text and which sentence does not. Quote the line.
Do not write a paragraph I could turn in. Do not pick a side.
Then stop.

Life is the prompt at the top of this step. Use that one when the ballot is yours.

How do you check every sentence against the official text?

Put the reply next to the sample ballot or the voter guide and keep a sentence only when you can see the quote. A plain-English line with no quote is a guess, even when it sounds careful.

Here is your last reply, and I am checking it against the official text. Do not add new facts.

For each plain-English sentence you wrote, answer MATCHES THE QUOTE or DOES NOT MATCH.
If it does not match, say which words went beyond the quote.
Do not tell me how to vote. Do not replace a bad sentence with a new claim.
If I deleted a sentence, leave it deleted.
Then stop.

[paste the reply you are checking]

If the official voter guide and the ballot question use different words, keep both quotes and do not let the chat merge them into a third meaning. When you cannot tell which document a line came from, cut the line. Research a topic with AI is the same habit for any claim you did not open.

Do one measure, then stop. A second measure gets its own paste. A long voter guide is closer to Summarize a long report only after you have the official file. You still check the lines. The summary is not a reason to skip the quotes.

How do you look up your polling place and the deadline?

The reading is done when the quotes match. Where you vote, whether you are registered, and the deadline are a different job, and the chat does not know them.

USAGov's how-to-vote page is the front door for how, when, and where to vote, including Election Day, early voting, and voting by mail. USAGov's Election Day page says that in federal elections in the U.S., you cannot vote online. A chat cannot cast a ballot.

USAGov's polling-place page says to contact your state or local election office for your polling place and its hours, and that you can also find it by checking your voter registration. It says your polling place is based on your residential address and may change from one election to the next. Use the location your election office lists for this election.

USAGov's registration-status page says to visit Can I Vote, select voter registration status, choose your state, and continue on your state's election website. Can I Vote says it is a nonpartisan site created by state election officials and that it links directly to state election websites. Check the status there, not in the chat. Vote.gov's guide to voting says each state and territory sets its own voter ID rules, and that you do not need a voter registration card to vote. You may still need an ID. Read the rule on your state's page. Do not photograph the ID into a chat.

Vote.gov's guide says some states conduct elections entirely by mail, others let you ask for an absentee ballot, and some voting locations are open before Election Day. It says to check your state or local election office. The same guide says to contact that office about voting materials in another language, and about accessible ballots, equipment, and voting locations. USAGov's sample-ballot page says you can bring notes, a voter guide, or a sample ballot into the voting booth, that some polling places restrict cell phones, and that you should check the rules with your local election office before you go. Bring paper.

If you are a service member or you live outside the United States, Vote.gov's registration page says you can use the Federal Post Card Application, and that military and overseas voters can get more information from the Federal Voting Assistance Program. Start from that Vote.gov registration page and follow the link there. The FEC also names Vote.gov and the U.S. Election Assistance Commission as places that provide election information. USAGov lists 1-844-USAGOV1 (1-844-872-4681) if you want a person to point you to the right government page.

Build a checklist of official pages I will open myself. Do not tell me how to vote. Do not invent a deadline, a polling place, an ID rule, or a registration status. Do not say I am registered.

My state: [state]. County or city: [name, or NOT SURE].
Election named on my sample ballot or election-office page: [name and date printed there, or NOT PRINTED].

Give me a checklist. Each row has a blank for "I opened this on [date]" and a blank for what the official page said.
Rows, and only these:
- Register or update registration, and read that deadlines vary by state: https://vote.gov/register
- How, when, and where to vote: https://www.usa.gov/how-to-vote
- My state or county election office, starting at https://www.usa.gov/state-election-office
- Polling place and hours, from my election office, with https://www.usa.gov/find-polling-place as the explainer
- Registration status on my state's election website. USAGov points to Can I Vote for that handoff: https://www.nass.org/can-I-vote

Do not fill in the blanks. Do not guess my polling place. Then stop.

Write the deadline and the location in your own notes after you see them on the official page. A date the chat typed does not count. AI can be out of date about candidates, measures, and deadlines.

What does a worked example look like?

Your county election office posted a sample ballot, and one measure is about the library. You copy the ballot question and the official summary, delete the street address, and leave the candidate list out.

You paste the question and ask for a yes block and a no block, each one a quote and then plain English. The reply says a yes vote "will not raise taxes." You look at the text you pasted. It does not say that. You mark the sentence DOES NOT MATCH and you delete it. You keep the quote that is actually on the page, and you leave NOT IN THE TEXT where the tax claim was. You do not ask which way a careful person would vote.

You then open Vote.gov, choose your state, and open the county election office page from USAGov's election-office list. The federal general election date you read on the FEC page is November 3, 2026. You still read the date and the hours on your election office page, because this library measure might be on a different ballot, and a primary date is the state's date. You check registration on the state site Can I Vote sends you to. The chat never sees your ID number.

What mistakes should you avoid?

These are the misses that waste the result. Skip them before you send anything.

Common mistakes

• Asking "how should I vote" with no official text pasted.
• Pasting a campaign mailer and treating it as the election office's words.
• Letting the chat recall "what this measure does" from memory.
• Keeping a plain-English effect you cannot find in the quote.
• Asking which candidate is better, or which side is smarter.
• Using November 3, 2026, as the deadline for a local election the official page schedules on another day.
• Pasting a voter ID number, a Social Security number, or a photo of a license so the chat can "look you up."
• Treating a nonprofit sample ballot, or a friend's screenshot, as the ballot you will see. USAGov says unofficial sample ballots may not look the same. Get the official one.

When should you not use AI for this?

Close the chat and use your election office when any of these is true.

• You want to be told how to vote, who is right, or what you should believe. That is your decision. This page will not make it.
• You do not have the official text yet. Wait until you can copy it from the sample ballot or the election office voter guide. Do not ask the chat to remember your county's measures.
• You are a student and the teacher asked for your own explanation. Use the school prompt to check your words. You write anything you turn in. Follow your teacher's rules.
• The question is whether you are registered, where your polling place is, which ID to bring, or what the deadline is. Open the official page. A chat's date is not the rule.
• Someone asks you to send a photo of your ID, your ballot, or your registration card through a random chat. Vote.gov says you do not need a voter registration card to vote. Your election office will tell you the ID rule. The chat does not need the card.
• You want the chat to cast the vote. USAGov says that in federal elections in the U.S., you cannot vote online.

What should you keep private?

A state, a county, and the official measure text are enough. Leave out a voter ID number, a Social Security number, a driver's license number, a full street address, a photo of an ID, and a barcode from a sample ballot.

Privacy: what not to paste

Do not check your registration inside the chat. The state election website is the place for that. The wider rule is Keep your data private with AI.

What should you check before you use it?

Answer each line before you rely on the plain English, and before you repeat it to anyone else.

Director check: look before you use it

• Can you point to the quote for every claim about what a yes vote would do and what a no vote would do? If the line is not in the official measure text or the official voter guide, it is not a fact yet.
• Did the text come from your sample ballot or your state or county election office? A mailer, a nonprofit ballot, and the chat's memory are not the source.
• Did the chat tell you how to vote, which side is better, what to believe, or which candidate to pick? Delete that. You decide.
• Could the chat be out of date? Treat any candidate, measure, or deadline it volunteered as unchecked. Open the election office page.
• Did you paste a voter ID number, a Social Security number, a license, or an address you did not need? Remove it. Do not continue in that thread.
• Did you look up registration, your polling place, and the deadline on the official pages? Vote.gov, USAGov, and your election office are the source. Rules vary by state.

What is one extra tip?

When the voter guide is several measures long, finish one measure and stop before you paste the next. That pause is Check each phase before the next one.

One extra tip

When a sentence sounds sure and you cannot find it, use Catch facts the AI made up and cut it. The same check, for a topic that is not a ballot, is Research a topic with AI.

More home guides are on Life and Ballot.

Official pages to keep open: Vote.gov, register and deadlines, the voting guide, USAGov how to vote, sample ballots and voter guides, state and local election offices, your polling place, registration status, Election Day, Can I Vote, and the FEC's election date and voting page.