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Yes. If you mark your mail ballot by mistake, do not throw it away or mail it back as is. Contact your county or state election office and ask for a spoiled-ballot replacement. Most offices will exchange it for a new ballot as long as you have not returned the first one.
This is general information, not legal advice.
Election offices use the word "spoil" as a technical term, and it covers more than one kind of error. Marking the wrong oval, overvoting a race by choosing too many candidates, tearing the ballot, spilling coffee on it, or signing the wrong line can all count. The common thread is that the ballot no longer reflects what you meant to do, and correcting it on the paper itself would only make the marks harder to read.
Do not try to fix it with white-out, scratching out, or arrows and notes. Tabulators read marks, not intentions, and stray marks are one of the most common reasons a ballot gets flagged for review.
| Situation | What to do |
|---|---|
| You marked the wrong choice but have not sealed the envelope | Call or visit your county election office and ask for a spoiled-ballot exchange. Bring the spoiled ballot with you. |
| You tore or stained the ballot | Same process. A damaged ballot is routinely replaced, since scanners may not read it. |
| You already mailed it back | You generally cannot get a replacement. A few states let you correct a ballot flagged for a fixable error (curing); most do not reissue after return. |
| You lost the ballot entirely | Ask your election office about a reissued or provisional ballot. The process is stricter than for a spoiled one. |
The process varies by state, but it usually runs through your county election office, not your post office or a campaign office. Many offices handle the exchange in person: you hand over the spoiled ballot, they mark it void, and they issue a fresh one. Some states allow the request by phone or in writing and will mail the replacement to you. Deadlines matter. Several states stop issuing replacements a few days before Election Day, and some cut off replacement-by-mail even earlier, so the exchange you could get last week may not be available the day before the election.
Keep the spoiled ballot until the exchange is complete. A few offices ask you to write "SPOILED" across it and return it with the new ballot, and having it in hand answers any questions about which ballot is the void one.
You cannot, and that is by design. Each mail ballot carries a barcode or serial number tied to you, and your voter record tracks which ballot was issued and whether it was returned. When you exchange a spoiled ballot, the office voids the old one in that system. Only the newest valid ballot you return can be counted. This is the same tracking that stops a ballot from being counted twice if, say, a replacement and the original both made it back.
It still counts as spoiled. There is no partial fix that leaves the rest of the ballot intact. When you exchange it, you vote the entire replacement ballot from scratch. That is also why you should check the whole ballot before sealing the envelope: a mistake discovered after you mail it is much harder to undo.
If your ballot is rejected after return for a fixable problem, some states have a "cure" process that lets you fix a signature mismatch or missing signature. Read our guide on ballot curing for how that works.
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