Flooding and storm damage have forced election officials in four states — Colorado, Utah, Arizona and Oklahoma — to change how and where people vote on Tuesday, November 3, as Americans cast the final ballots of the 2026 midterm elections. Florida's flood-driven polling-place moves, in Brevard and neighbouring counties, were reported separately by this newsroom; this report covers the emergency measures in the other four affected states, with the exact replacement locations voters need.

Source: Zark News (multi-state roundup)

In every affected state the instruction from officials is the same: check your polling place before you travel. Polls are open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. local time in Colorado, Arizona and Oklahoma on Election Day, and a polling place that was open for early voting may not be the place — or may not be open at all — on Tuesday.

Colorado: Pagosa Springs voter center and drop box moved

In Archuleta County, Colorado, the Ross Aragon Community Center voter center and the Pagosa Springs Town Hall ballot drop box are closed because of flood risk from the San Juan River, the Colorado Secretary of State's Office said in a November 1 news release issued with the Archuleta County Clerk and Recorder's Office and the La Plata County Clerk and Recorder's Office.

Source: Colorado Secretary of State

Replacement locations, all open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Election Day: the new Archuleta County Courthouse voter center at 109 Harmon Park Drive, Pagosa Springs; the county Election Office at 305 Village Drive; the Extension Office voter center; the joint La Plata–Archuleta voter center at Pine River Library, 395 Bayfield Center Drive, Bayfield; and a staffed mobile drop box in the parking lot at 10 Solomon Drive, Pagosa Springs, where a bipartisan team of election judges collects ballots in a sealed box. The drop box at the TARA Community Center, 333 Milton Lane in Arboles, also remains available until 7 p.m.

Colorado's rules give displaced voters extra options. Any eligible voter affected by flooding who has not yet voted can visit any voter center in the state and request a replacement ballot: inside your home county you receive your full ballot with all local contests; outside it, a ballot with statewide races only. A mail ballot can be returned to any drop box or voter center in the state by 7 p.m. on Election Day, and voters who cannot travel because of flooding can request an emergency ballot through the Secretary of State's website. The Secretary of State's office said 4,453 Archuleta County voters had already cast ballots as of 11:59 p.m. on October 29.

The flooding behind the changes is historic in scale: the San Juan River at Pagosa Springs crested at about 16.81 feet on Sunday night, within a foot of the 1911 record crest of about 17.8 feet that destroyed much of the town, according to the Archuleta County Sheriff's Office as reported in flood coverage. Pagosa Springs Town Hall, the Community Center and other town facilities were closed to the public on Monday, the town said.

Source: Pagosa Daily Post (town flood update)

Utah: electronic ballots for San Juan County voters who cannot travel

Utah Lieutenant Governor Deidre Henderson, the state's chief election officer, issued a Declaration of Emergency Election Accommodations on November 2 allowing voters in San Juan County — in Utah's flood-hit southeast — who cannot reasonably travel to a polling place or drop box on Election Day to request and return their ballots electronically, according to the declaration as reported in multi-state coverage. The declaration is published on the Lieutenant Governor's elections page.

Source: Utah Lieutenant Governor (Declaration of Emergency Election Accommodations, Nov. 2, 2026)

San Juan County is one of the most remote voting jurisdictions in the continental United States, and it is also accustomed to federal election monitoring because of its language-assistance obligations. The electronic-ballot accommodation is an emergency exception for this election, aimed at voters cut off by flood conditions, not a permanent change to Utah's vote-by-mail system.

Arizona: two Maricopa County vote centers lost power, then reopened

In Maricopa County, Arizona, the vote centers at Paradise Valley Community College and Sunset Canyon School lost power on Monday morning and later reopened, according to county election officials. Poll workers stayed on site during the outage and voters could still drop off ballots, Elections Director Scott Jarrett said, as reported in multi-state coverage of the disruptions. Because Maricopa County uses vote centers, any registered voter in the county can vote at any open center — a voter turned away from a dark building can use another location rather than losing the vote.

The power problems came against a wider emergency: Governor Katie Hobbs declared a statewide emergency on Monday after flooding in northern Arizona, and Maricopa County declared a local emergency for unincorporated areas running through 6 a.m. on November 6. In the Rio Verde Foothills, county officials said flooded rural roads would be passable by the end of Monday. Unsubstantiated claims of election wrongdoing circulated on social media during the outage; officials identified the cause as power-related, and both centers reopened.

Oklahoma: storm damage moves a polling place in Cimarron County

In Oklahoma, storm damage on Sunday night forced a polling-place change in Cimarron County, in the state's Panhandle. The Cimarron County Election Board moved polling place 130006 from the Keyes Community Center to Keyes City Hall, according to local broadcast reports. Oklahoma State Election Board spokesperson Misha Mohr told News 9 that the board posts “emergency polling place changes” at the top of its website and that signs will direct voters at any changed site.

Source: News 9, Oklahoma City

“Voters will be able to vote on Election Day, regardless of the situation,” Mohr told News 9. The State Election Board is working with the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management and county election boards, and the Oklahoma County Election Board told the station it has generators that can keep polling places running for a few hours during a power outage. Oklahoma polls are open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesday, November 3.

What voters in the affected states should do now

Check before you travel: Colorado voters can use the Secretary of State's voter information page; Utah voters should contact their county clerk or the Lieutenant Governor's elections office; Maricopa County voters can find any open vote center through Maricopa County Elections; Oklahoma voters should check the State Election Board's emergency polling place changes page and the OK Voter Portal. If you arrive at a closed or moved location, look for posted signs — officials in Oklahoma and Colorado say redirected sites will be marked — and ask poll workers about replacement or emergency ballot options before leaving.