Who can vote in US elections, and what steps must you take to do so?

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Who can vote in US elections, and what steps must you take to do so?

2024-10-09 03:11 Last Updated At：05:30

So you want to cast a ballot on Election Day? Or maybe vote by mail? It helps to know the rules.

The federal government sets some basic standards: U.S. citizens age 18 or older are eligible to vote. But each state can adopt additional voting requirements and restrictions. For example, many states disqualify voters serving a prison sentence for felony crimes.

Many states also require people to register to vote in advance of Election Day, so poll workers can check names off a list when people show up to vote. The majority of states also ask voters to show some form of identification, so carrying an ID may be important.

Here's a look at some of the most common rules and requirements when it comes to casting a ballot.

The 26th Amendment to the Constitution sets the voting age at 18. You must be at least that old by Election Day, which this year is Nov. 5.

States may allow people to register to vote while age 17, or in some cases 16, so long as they turn 18 by Election Day.

A 1996 U.S. law makes it illegal for noncitizens to vote in elections for president or members of Congress. Violators can be fined and imprisoned for up to a year. They can also be deported. When people register to vote, they confirm under penalty of perjury that they are U.S. citizens.

No state constitutions explicitly allow noncitizens to vote. Many states have laws that prohibit noncitizens from voting for state offices such as governor or attorney general. There are ballot measures in several states this November asking voters whether to explicitly add such a prohibition to the state's constitution.

Some municipalities in California, Maryland and Vermont, as well as the District of Columbia, do allow voting by noncitizens in some local elections such as for school board and city council. In Arizona, voters must prove their citizenship to participate in local and state races.

North Dakota is the only state that does not require people to register to vote before casting a ballot. Elsewhere, people must register their names and addresses with election officials. That can be done in-person at state or local election offices or state motor vehicles offices. Many states also allow voter registrations to be mailed or submitted online.

About 20 states allow people to register on Election Day and then immediately cast a ballot.

The remaining states require some sort of advance registration, with deadlines ranging from three to 30 days before an election. Many of the states with voter registration deadlines more than two weeks ahead of the election are located in the South.

About three-quarters of states ask for identification from voters at the polls. Twenty-one states request a photo identification, such as a driver's license or government-issued card, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Fifteen additional states accept nonphoto identification, such as a utility bill or bank statement that lists a person's name and address.

If voters don't have identification, they may still be able to vote. In some states, voters can sign an affidavit of identity. In other states, they can cast a provisional ballot that is counted if election workers later verify their signature or if they return later with identification.

States that don't require proof of identify use other means to verify voters, such as signatures or asking for home addresses.

People voting absentee or by mail could face additional requirements, such as getting a witness to sign their absentee ballot envelope.

Federal law prohibits states from imposing a residency requirement longer than 30 days before an election. But it’s up to voters to designate the address where they reside.

Students who live in one state but attend college elsewhere typically have the choice of voting at their home address or college address. But they still must follow state identification requirements. Some states do not accept student IDs as identification.

In all jurisdictions except Maine, Vermont and the nation's capital, people convicted of felony crimes lose the right to vote while incarcerated.

In half the states, felony voting restrictions extend after incarceration, often including their time on probation or parole, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. In some states, convicted felons lose their voting rights indefinitely for certain crimes.

Read more about how U.S. elections work at Explaining Election 2024, a series from The Associated Press aimed at helping make sense of the American democracy. The AP receives support from several private foundations to enhance its explanatory coverage of elections and democracy. See more about AP’s democracy initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

MI5 spy chief says Russia and Iran are behind a 'staggering' rise in deadly plots

2024-10-09 05:28 Last Updated At：05:30

LONDON (AP) — Britain is facing a “staggering rise” in attempts at assassination, sabotage and other crimes on U.K. soil by Russia and Iran, as the two states recruit criminals to “do their dirty work,” the head of Britain's domestic intelligence agency said Tuesday.

MI5 Director General Ken McCallum said his agents and police have tackled 20 “potentially lethal” plots backed by Iran since 2022 and warned that it could expand its targets in the United Kingdom if conflicts in the Middle East deepen.

So far, the threats have been aimed at Iranians abroad who oppose the country's authorities. But McCallum said there is the risk “of an increase in — or broadening of — Iranian state aggression in the U.K.” if the Middle East crisis escalates with Israel launching a major attack in response to Iran’s recent missile barrage.

In a rare public speech setting out the major threats to the U.K. from both states and militant groups, McCallum argued that hostile states, radicalized individuals and a revived Islamic State group have combined to create “the most complex and interconnected threat environment we’ve ever seen.”

McCallum said there also is a risk that Israel’s conflicts with Iran-backed groups — the militant Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon as well as the Houthi rebels in Yemen — could trigger attacks in the U.K., though so far the crisis has not translated “at scale into terrorist violence” in Britain.

The number of state-threat investigations undertaken by MI5 has risen by 48% in the past year, with Iran, Russia and China the main perpetrators, McCallum told journalists at the U.K.’s counterterrorism command center in London.

McCallum said that since the death of Mahsa Amini, who died in Iranian police custody in September 2022 after being detained for allegedly violating the Islamic republic’s mandatory headscarf law, “we’ve seen plot after plot here in the U.K., at an unprecedented pace and scale.”

He said MI5 and the police have responded to 20 potentially lethal Iran-backed plots since January 2022, up by a third from the figure of 15 the government gave at the end of January.

McCallum said Russia’s military intelligence agency was trying to use “arson, sabotage and more” to create “mayhem” on the streets of Britain and other European countries.

Both Russia and Iran often turn to criminals, “from international drug traffickers to low-level crooks,” to carry out their illegal deeds, he said.

Several alleged state-backed plots have led to criminal charges. In December, a Chechen man was jailed for allegedly carrying out reconnaissance on the offices of a dissident Iranian broadcaster in London. Separately, several suspects are awaiting trial in London over an alleged Russia-linked plan to attack Ukrainian-owned businesses.

Britain is not alone in pointing a finger at Moscow and Tehran. Germany has arrested several people for allegedly spying or planning attacks on behalf of Russia. In May, Sweden’s domestic security agency accused Iran of using criminal networks to target Israeli or Jewish interests in the Scandinavian country.

Past speeches by McCallum and other U.K. intelligence chiefs have emphasized China's increasingly assertive behavior, which in 2022 McCallum called Britain’s greatest "strategic challenge.” On Tuesday, McCallum stressed the importance of the U.K.-China economic relationship but said there were “risks to be managed.”

The U.K.’s official terror threat level stands at “substantial,” the middle of a five-point scale, meaning an attack is likely, and McCallum said that since 2017, MI5 and the police have disrupted 43 late-stage plots, saving “numerous lives.”

While about three-quarters of the plots stem from Islamic extremist ideology and a quarter from the extreme right, he said those labels “don’t fully reflect the dizzying range of beliefs and ideologies we see,” drawn from a soup of “online hatred, conspiracy theories and disinformation." Young people are increasingly involved, he said, with 13% of the subjects of MI5 terror investigations under the age of 18.

He also said there were worrying signs that the Islamic State group is attempting a comeback, despite the collapse of its self-declared caliphate in Iraq and Syria several years ago.

McCallum said that “after a few years of being pinned well back, they’ve resumed efforts to export terrorism," and cited a March attack that killed more than 140 people at a Moscow concert hall and was claimed by IS, as “a brutal demonstration of its capability.”

MI5 has faced criticism for its failure to stop deadly attacks, including a 2017 suicide bombing that killed 22 people at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester.

“The first 20 years of my career here were crammed full of terrorist threats,” McCallum said. “We now face those alongside state-backed assassination and sabotage plots, against the backdrop of a major European land war.”

MI5, he said, “has one hell of a job on its hands.”

Associated Press writer Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen contributed to this story.