Vote Clock

Privacy policy

Last updated October 25, 2026

The short version: Vote Clock has no accounts, no ads and no tracking cookies, and we don't sell or share personal information. Your state, preferences and voting plan are saved only on your own device. If you look up your district by address or location, we use it for that lookup only and don't keep it.

Who we are

Election Media LLC operates voteclock.org. Questions about this policy: [email protected].

Information saved on your device

When you choose a state, a light or dark look, or look up your congressional district, your browser saves that choice on your device so the site remembers it next time. This stays in your browser's local storage. It is not sent to us, and you can clear it at any time in your browser settings.

The same is true of your voting plan. If you use "Make a voting plan," the way you plan to vote and the steps you tick off are saved only on your device, so you can come back to them. They are never sent to us, and "Clear my plan" removes them. A picture you make to share is drawn on your device, and it goes only where you send it. The voting deadlines quiz saves nothing.

Address and location lookup

If you use "Find your U.S. representative by address," your browser sends the address securely to our server, which passes it to the U.S. Census Bureau Geocoder to find your state and districts. We receive back only your state and district numbers.

The same search also asks Google's Civic Information API for your polling place, 2026 advance-voting sites and ballot drop boxes, using official data from the Voting Information Project. That same Google lookup also returns the contests and ballot measures on your ballot, which we show under "What's on your ballot." We send Google the address you typed, once, and keep nothing: we make no second request for ballot information, and we don't keep the address or anything that comes back. Tapping "Directions" opens Google Maps with the polling place you chose.

As you type an address, the page may offer matching addresses to choose from. Once you have typed a house number and a street name and pause, your browser sends what you have typed so far to our server, which asks the Census Bureau for matches. Typing only a ZIP code sends nothing: the page works out the state from the ZIP code on your device.

If you tap "Use my current location," your device first asks your permission. If you allow it, your browser sends your location once, the same way, so the Census Bureau can find your district. We don't track your location and don't ask for it again unless you tap the button.

Polling places and ballots go by street address, so we also send that location, once, to Google's Geocoding API to find the nearest street address. We show it to you and do nothing more with it unless you confirm it. If you do, it is used exactly like an address you typed. We don't keep the location or the address.

If the Census Bureau has no match for an address you typed, our server sends that address, once, to Google's Geocoding API as a second try. If Google finds the exact street address, we ask the Census Bureau for the districts at that spot. If it finds only addresses close to yours, we show them for you to choose from and look nothing up until you choose. We don't keep the address or anything that comes back.

Suggesting your state

On the home page we may suggest your state so you can get to your deadlines in one tap. To do this, our server reads the approximate location that Cloudflare works out from your network address (only as precise as your state) and sends back a state name. We never choose a state for you, and we don't store or log this guess. If you use a VPN, the suggestion may be wrong, and you can simply pick a different state.

Technical information

Like every website, Vote Clock's hosting provider, Cloudflare, processes basic technical information, such as IP addresses and the pages requested, to deliver the site and protect it from attacks. Cloudflare may keep this information for a short time under its own privacy policy.

We use Cloudflare Web Analytics to count visits and see which pages are used. It does not use cookies and does not identify individual visitors.

How pages are used

To find pages that are confusing, slow or broken, we count how pages are used, never who uses them. When you leave a page, your browser sends us one short message with: the page; whether your screen is phone, tablet or computer sized; where clicks landed, rounded to 16-pixel squares, and which button or link was clicked (never the words on it, and never anything you type or enter in a form); how far down you scrolled and roughly how long the page was in use; fast repeated clicks, clicks that did nothing, and links you came straight back from; the previous Vote Clock page you were on; error messages from the page's code; and page-speed grades. We also count which pages are read and which news items are seen or tapped.

We add these to daily totals for each page and keep nothing else: no cookie, no ID, no record of your visit, and not your network address or your browser. Nothing records your screen. Click totals are kept for 35 days and other totals for up to 400 days. If your browser sends Global Privacy Control or Do Not Track, it doesn't send the click, scroll and speed details.

Cookies

Vote Clock does not set cookies. Our hosting provider may set a strictly necessary security cookie to protect the site from automated abuse. We don't use advertising or tracking cookies.

Error reports

If you use "Report an error," we keep what you type: the state, the date you chose, your message and any link you add. We use it only to check that date against the official election office. We don't ask for your name or email address, and we don't keep your network address with the report, so please leave personal details out. To limit abuse, our server counts reports per network for one hour using a one-way code, never the address itself.

Email

If you email us, we keep your message and address so we can reply and follow up, for example on a correction you reported. We don't add you to any mailing list.

Services we rely on

Our fonts and all other files load from voteclock.org itself, not from other companies' servers.

Embedded clocks

When another website embeds a Vote Clock countdown, your browser loads that countdown from voteclock.org, and this policy applies to it. The website around it has its own privacy policy.

What we don't do

Children

Vote Clock is a general-audience website and is not directed to children under 13. We don't knowingly collect personal information from children.

Your choices

You can clear the choices saved on your device at any time in your browser settings. Because we don't keep personal information about visitors, there's usually nothing for us to access or delete. If you have a privacy question or request, including under the laws of your state, email [email protected].

Changes

This policy describes how Vote Clock works today. As we add features or services, it may change. When it does, we'll update it here with a new date at the top, and if a change means collecting new kinds of personal information, we'll post the update before the change takes effect.