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Please note!
This fact brief was originally published as an experiment to test the concepts behind fact briefs.
Readers should be aware that while there is still a lot of useful information in fact briefs like this one, not all of them reflect Gigafact's current methods and standards for fact briefs. If you come across any that you feel are out of date, don't hesitate to contact us at support@gigafact.org.
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FACT BRIEF

Do some states allow voters to change their vote after it has already been cast?

By Allegra Taylor
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YES

A few states allow a voter to change their vote after it has already been cast. The voter may request that election officials invalidate their ballot through a process known as “spoiling" (the word also applies to the replacement process when a ballot has been damaged). Then the voter may cast a new ballot.

Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin and some Connecticut towns allow absentee voters to spoil their ballot and submit a new one. In New York, a voter may cast a new ballot in-person and request that their previous ballot be spoiled. Several other states allow a voter to spoil a ballot as long as the initial ballot hasn’t yet been returned or processed. Each state has different deadlines for ballot spoiling requests.

In the 2020 presidential election, 53,000 ballots have been spoiled so far in Michigan—mostly due to damage and printing errors, not because voters are changing their minds.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Sources
Ballotpedia: What is a spoiled ballot?
Business Insider: How to change your vote
Minnesota: Marking a ballot spoiled or lost
Michigan: Absentee voting process
Wisconsin: Spoiling absentee ballot guidance
MLive: 53,000 ballots have been spoiled in Michigan so far, but most aren’t from voters changing their minds
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Gigafact
Between 2020 and 2022, under close editorial supervision, Gigafact contracted a group of freelance writers and editors to test the concepts for fact briefs and provide inputs to our software development process. We call this effort Gigafact Foundry. Over the course of these two years, Gigafact Foundry writers published over 1500 fact briefs in response to claims they found online. Their important work forms the basis of Gigafact formats and editorial guidelines, and is available to the public on Gigafact.org. Readers should be aware that while there is still a lot of relevant information to be found, not all fact briefs produced by Gigafact Foundry reflect Gigafact's current methods and standards for fact briefs. If you come across any that you feel are out of date and need to be looked at with fresh eyes, don't hesitate to contact us at support@gigafact.org.
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About fact briefs published on Gigafact
Fact briefs are short, credibly sourced summaries that offer “yes/no” answers in response to claims found online. They rely on publicly available, often primary source data and documents. Fact briefs are created by contributors to Gigafact —a nonprofit project looking to expand participation in fact-checking and protect the democratic process. See all fact briefs here.