Voting in the 2015 general elections
From Ballotpedia - Reading time: 5 min
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This page contains voter registration information pertaining to the 2015 general elections.
While odd years are not normally associated with busy election seasons, there was still a lot going on at Ballotpedia. Ballotpedia covered state executive, state legislative and state ballot measure elections as well as municipal, school board, and local ballot measure elections. We also covered special elections as they were announced.
The average polling location was open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. local time on election day, but this varied by state. View our complete list of state poll opening and closing times here. Polls opened at noon at the latest and closed at 6 p.m. at the earliest.
State executive and legislative elections[edit]
Specifically, the general dates below refer to when candidates were on the ballot for state executive and state legislative elections.
The table below contains the following information:
- Registration deadline
- Residency requirements
- Voter ID requirements
- Absentee voting requirements
- Absentee voting deadlines
- Early voting deadlines
| Voting in the General Election 2015 Information |
|---|
| State | Registration deadline | Days before the General Election | Residency requirements | Voter ID requirements | Same day registration |
Absentee voting requirements | Absentee voting deadline | Early voting deadline |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kentucky | 10/5/2015[1] | 29[1] | Resident[2] | Photo or non-photo ID required[3] | No[1] | Excuse required[4] | Received by 6pm on election day[4] | No early voting[4] |
| Louisiana | 10/21/2015[5] | 31[5] | Resident of Louisiana and parish of registration[6] | Yes[7] | No[5] | Excuse required[8] | 11/17/2015[8] | 11/20/2015[8] |
| Mississippi | 10/3/2015[9] | 31[9] | Resident of state and county or municipality for 30 days[10] | Yes[11] | No[9] | Excuse required[12] | Received by 11/2/2015[12] | Noon on 10/31/2015[12] |
| New Jersey | 10/13/2015[13] | 21[13] | Resident of the county for 30 days before the election[14] | No[14] | No[14] | No excuse required[14] | 11/3/2015[13] | 11/3/2015[13] |
| Virginia | 10/13/2015[15] | 21[15] | Resident[16] | Yes[17] | No[15] | Excuse required[18] | 10/27/15[18] | 10/31/15[18] |
Local and municipal elections[edit]
Ballotpedia covers elections in the top 100 cities by population and the top 1,000 school districts by enrollment. Only some of these elections have primaries, and some have a general election followed by a runoff election at a later date if one candidate does not receive a certain percentage of the vote.
Municipal elections[edit]
School board elections[edit]
School board highlights[edit]
The following chart lists the ten largest school districts that held elections in 2015:
| Largest school districts with 2015 elections | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| District | State | Date | Seats up for election | Total board seats | Student enrollment |
| Los Angeles Unified School District | California | 5/19/2015 | 4 | 7 | 659,639 |
| Houston Independent School District | Texas | 11/3/2015 | 4 | 9 | 203,066 |
| Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools | North Carolina | 11/3/2015 | 3 | 9 | 141,728 |
| Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District | Texas | 11/3/2015 | 4 | 7 | 107,960 |
| Northside Independent School District | Texas | 5/9/2015 | 4 | 7 | 98,110 |
| Albuquerque Public Schools | New Mexico | 2/3/2015 | 3 | 7 | 94,318 |
| Jeffco Public Schools | Colorado | 11/3/2015 | 2 | 5 | 85,793 |
| Fort Worth Independent School District | Texas | 5/9/2015 | 4 | 9 | 83,109 |
| Prince William County Public Schools | Virginia | 11/3/2015 | 8 | 8 | 81,937 |
| Denver Public Schools | Colorado | 11/3/2015 | 3 | 7 | 80,890 |
Special elections[edit]
Ballotpedia covered several special elections in 2015.
Congress[edit]
The following chart lists special elections to the 114th United States Congress as they were announced.
| District | Prior Incumbent | General Election Candidates | Election Date | Winner | Partisan Switch? |
| New York's 11th | Michael Grimm |  Daniel Donovan Vincent Gentile James Lane |
May 5, 2015 | Daniel Donovan |
No |
| Mississippi's 1st | Alan Nunnelee | Walter Zinn Boyce Adams Nancy Collins Trent Kelly Quentin Whitwell Chip Mills Greg Pirkle Daniel Sparks Mike Tagert Sam Adcock Ed Holliday Starner Jones Henry Ross |
May 12, 2015 | Trent Kelly |
No |
| Illinois' 18th | Aaron Schock | Robert Mellon Darin LaHood |
September 10, 2015 | Darin LaHood |
No |
| Ohio's 8th | John Boehner | Corey Foister Warren Davidson James Condit, Jr. |
June 7, 2016 | Warren Davidson |
No |
| Pennsylvania's 2nd | Chaka Fattah | Dwight Evans James Jones |
November 8, 2016 | Dwight Evans |
No |
| Hawaii's 1st | Mark Takai | Colleen Hanabusa Peter Cross Angela Aulani Kaaihue Howard Kim Javier Ocasio Shirlene Ostrov Alan Yim Calvin Griffin Yvonne Perry Peter Plotzeneder |
November 8, 2016 | Colleen Hanabusa |
No |
| Kentucky's 1st | Ed Whitfield | James Comer Sam Gaskins |
November 8, 2016 | James Comer |
No |
State legislative[edit]
Across the nation, special elections are frequently conducted to fill vacancies in state legislatures. A total of 25 states use special elections to fill legislative vacancies. In two states, Illinois and Indiana, special elections are used in limited circumstances. In 2015, 89 state legislative seats were filled through special elections in 27 states.
Municipal[edit]
School boards[edit]
- Tangipahoa Parish School System special elections (2015)
- St. Tammany Parish Public Schools special elections (2015)
See also[edit]
- 2015 elections
- Elections and events calendar
- Signature requirements and deadlines for 2015 state government elections
- Portal:Elections
Footnotes[edit]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Kentucky State Board of Elections, "2015 Kentucky Election Calendar," accessed April 22, 2015
- ↑ Kentucky State Board of Elections, "Register to vote," accessed April 22, 2015
- ↑ Kentucky State Board of Elections, "Voter Rights and Responsibility," accessed April 22, 2015
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Kentucky State Board of Elections, "Absentee Voter Information," accessed April 22, 2015
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Louisiana Secretary of State, "2015 Elections," accessed April 22, 2015
- ↑ Louisiana Secretary of State, "2015 Elections," accessed April 22, 2015
- ↑ Louisiana Secretary of State, "Vote on Election Day," accessed April 22, 2015
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Louisiana Secretary of State, "Vote by Mail," accessed April 22, 2015
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Mississippi Secretary of State, "2015 Elections Calendar," accessed April 22, 2015
- ↑ Mississippi Secretary of State, "VOTER REGISTRATION APPLICATION," accessed April 22, 2015
- ↑ Mississippi Voter ID, "Mississippi Voter ID," accessed April 22, 2015
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 Mississippi Voter Information Guide, "Mississippi Voter Information Guide," accessed April 22, 2015
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 New Jersey Elections, "2015 General election calendar," accessed April 22, 2015
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 14.3 State of New Jersey Department of State, "Register to vote," accessed April 22, 2015
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 Virginia Department of Elections, "Virginia Voter Registration," accessed April 22, 2015
- ↑ Virginia Department of Elections, "Virginia Voter Registration Application Form," accessed April 22, 2015
- ↑ Virginia State Board of Elections, "In person voting," accessed April 22, 2015
- ↑ 18.0 18.1 18.2 Virginia State Board of Elections, "Absentee Ballot Application," accessed April 22, 2015
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