Updating your voter registration after a name change
Updating the name on your voter registration is free in every state that registers voters. Whether you can do it online, whether the DMV does it for you, and how long before an election the book closes.
Updating the name on your voter registration is free in every state that registers voters.
Registration is run by your state, not federally, so the method and the deadline are set where you live.
Many states update your registration automatically when you change your name at the DMV. Many do not, and the two systems do not always talk to each other.
Your registration should match the name you give at the polling place.
Do this well before a registration deadline — those close weeks before an election in most states.
What state and county election offices require
| What | Value | Source | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fee | Free | Register or update — vote.gov | |
| Run by | Your state | Register or update — vote.gov | |
| Typical time | Minutes, where online | Register or update — vote.gov | |
| Order | After the DMV | Register or update — vote.gov |
Why the DMV step matters here
Federal motor-voter law means most state license applications carry a voter registration block, so a name change at the DMV is often the moment your registration is updated too.
Whether it actually propagates is a state-by-state answer, and it is the fact most worth checking. Assuming it happened is how people arrive at a polling place under a name the roll does not hold.
What to check for your state
Whether a name change can be made online, or whether it needs a paper form.
Whether the state says the DMV change updates your registration.
How many days before an election registration closes.
This one does differ by state
Registration is administered by the state. Whether an online name change exists, whether the DMV change propagates, and when the book closes are three facts that differ genuinely at every state line.
- Alaska
- Arizona
- Arkansas
- California
- Florida
- Georgia
- Maryland
- Missouri
- Nebraska
- Nevada
- New Jersey
- New Mexico
- New York
- North Carolina
- North Dakota
- Ohio
- Oklahoma
- Oregon
- Pennsylvania
- South Carolina
- South Dakota
- Texas
- Utah
- Vermont
- Virginia
- Washington
- Wisconsin
States are listed here only where we could verify at least one fact beyond the agency name. Where a state’s own site did not say, we have left it out rather than write a page that repeats this one with a state name typed into it.
Everything above is free. Doing it everywhere else is the work.
You can do all of this yourself with the links on this page — every underlying form is free. What we sell is the evening back: the official forms filled in from your answers, the steps in the order that works, and a written letter for every bank, employer and insurer you have to tell.
Two questions about your situation first, because there is one answer that means we can’t help — and we would rather tell you that before you pay than after.
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