Election Day in DC: Any Vote Center, 7 to 8 — and the Last Deadlines for a Mailed Ballot
The District votes differently from its neighbours: any vote center, for any resident, until 8 p.m. — for a first new mayor in more than a decade, two at-large Council seats and a foie gras measure, under ranked-choice rules in the crowded races.
The District of Columbia votes today, and it votes its own way. A DC voter can cast a ballot at any voting center in the District from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Tuesday, regardless of where they live — no assigned precinct, no wrong door. That flexibility is the District's alone in the capital region today: Maryland and Virginia voters both vote at assigned polling places.
The mailed ballot has two last doors, and they close at different times in different ways. A ballot put in a drop box is due by 8 p.m. tonight. A mailed ballot must be postmarked on or before Election Day and arrive within 10 days to be counted — a ballot dropped in a mailbox today, postmarked today, is still a live ballot; one mailed tomorrow is not.
What those ballots decide is a changed city government. Three candidates are running to succeed Mayor Muriel Bowser, who is not seeking a fourth term: Democrat Janeese Lewis George, independent Rhonda Hamilton and DC Statehood Green Party candidate Robert L. Gross. Two at-large DC Council seats are also on the ballot, along with a ballot measure about foie gras.
Two District rules shape how the choices are counted. Ranked-choice voting is used in races with three or more candidates, so voters in those contests rank rather than simply pick. And noncitizen residents of the District may vote in local races — mayor, Council, local measures — but not in federal ones. Polls close at 8 p.m.; the District's first numbers follow tonight, with final ranked-choice results, as the desk has reported, still weeks away.
