the ballot has a downstairs

The ballot keeps going after the famous names. Bolts has a useful guide to the rest of it.

Daniel Nichanian’s 2026 general-election guide collects selected contests for governors, state legislatures, courts, prosecutors, sheriffs, school boards and local government, alongside ballot measures. There is at least one nonfederal race from every state and Washington, DC, with short explanations and links for further reading.

It is a curated selection rather than your complete ballot, and Bolts plans to add results as they become available. Useful for following the offices that tend to disappear beneath the national headlines, without opening several hundred browser tabs.

Image credits: historical voting-booth photograph, Dsw4 / Wikimedia Commons, public domain; Wisconsin State Capitol, ORDSpotter41 / Wikimedia Commons, CC0 1.0. These are illustrative file photographs, not photographs of a 2026 ballot.