Today is the last day to vote early in D.C. before the most consequential local election in years

Early vote centers across Washington close tonight at 7 p.m. After that, the only way to cast a ballot is to show up Tuesday, November 3, drop a mail ballot in a box, or postmark it by Election Day. If you have not voted yet, today is it.

What is on the other side of that deadline is, by any reasonable measure, the most consequential D.C. local election in over a decade. Voters will head to the polls Tuesday, Nov. 3, to elect a new mayor, choose D.C. Council members, and decide other local and federal races. Incumbent Mayor Muriel Bowser is retiring after serving three consecutive four-year terms. The city has not chosen a new mayor since 2014.

Where things stand on early voting

As of November 1, 88,113 mail-in and early in-person votes have been cast, representing 18 percent of D.C.'s approximately 486,000 registered voters. More than 453,000 mail-in ballots have been requested. That figure will climb before Tuesday night. All active registered D.C. voters are automatically sent a ballot, so the number of outstanding ballots still in circulation is substantial.

The early voting period runs through Sunday, November 1, with early vote centers open from 8:30 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Eastern Time. Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 3, with voting centers open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Voters can go to any voting center in the District on Election Day, regardless of where they live.

One more thing worth knowing about the count: votes will begin being tallied after polls close on Election Day, and the D.C. Board of Elections will continue to update totals for ballots received until Friday, November 13. Official election results are tentatively scheduled to be certified on Wednesday, December 2. With ranked-choice tabulation happening on top of that, anyone expecting a clean result on election night should adjust their expectations.

The mayor's race: Lewis George is the clear front-runner

Councilmember Janeese Lewis George, who pledged to aggressively stand up to federal intervention into Washington D.C.'s affairs, won June's Democratic primary for mayor, setting up a potential showdown with the Trump administration over its moves to challenge the city's limited autonomy.

In an overwhelmingly Democratic city, Lewis George is likely to take the top spot in November's general election, replacing moderate Muriel Bowser, who decided not to run again after three terms. She will face Green Party candidate Robert Gross in November. No Republican filed for the general election.

Lewis George, a self-proclaimed democratic socialist, came out on top as D.C.'s probable next mayor in the district's first-ever rollout of ranked-choice voting for the Democratic primary elections on June 16. She delivered an ambitious message focused on affordability, pledging to reduce childcare costs, rein in Pepco bills, and build a significant amount of new housing.

Lewis George has been on the Council since 2021 and leaned on unions and progressives in her bid for mayor. Whenever she steps down from the Council, which she said will not come until she is sworn in as mayor in January assuming her victory in November, Ward 4 will need to host a special election to fill her former Council seat. That is yet another election D.C. residents could face in early 2027.

Seven Council seats and a tangle of ranked-choice rules

The 2026 Council election will elect seven members to the Council of the District of Columbia. This is the first Council election to use ranked-choice voting, following the implementation of Initiative 83.

The at-large race has a wrinkle that is not immediately obvious. Four candidates are competing for two seats: Democrat Oye Owolewa, independent Elissa Silverman, Republican Darrell Green, and Statehood Green Party candidate Darryl Moch. Under the Home Rule Charter, one of those two at-large seats must go to a non-Democrat. That constraint does not go away under ranked-choice voting.

The result is a counting system that confuses even engaged voters. In any general election contest for at-large members of the Council where there are two winners, each ballot counts as one vote for the highest-ranked active candidate on that ballot. Each ballot counts only for the highest-ranked active candidate at any given point in the count. Because the current ranked-choice law uses a single count to elect two councilmembers, a voter can ultimately elect only one at-large Council seat per ballot, provided a ranked candidate survives. Advocacy group Make All Votes Count DC, which backed Initiative 83, describes this as a feature, not a flaw, pointing to the initiative language that has been unchanged since it first appeared.

Council Chair Phil Mendelson, a Democrat, is running for a fifth term against Republican Abi-Ananiah Prudent. In Ward 3, Matthew Frumin, a Democrat, is running unopposed. Competitive ward races include Ward 5, where incumbent Zachary Parker faces Republican Jeffrey Kihien-Palza and Green Party candidate Joyce Robinson-Paul, and Ward 6, where Charles Allen faces Republican Jorge Rice.

The at-large race also features Elissa Silverman, who won the June 16 special election to fill the seat vacated after Kenyan McDuffie resigned from the Council to run for mayor. Interim councilmember Doni Crawford had been appointed to the position following McDuffie's resignation. Silverman, an independent, pulled 55.32 percent in that three-way special election and now runs again in the fall general.

Initiative 86: D.C. votes on a foie gras ban

Tucked below the headline races is a measure to ban foie gras produced through force-feeding, which has qualified for the November ballot, according to the D.C. Board of Elections. Known as Initiative 86, or the Prohibiting Force-Feeding of Birds Act of 2026, the proposal would prohibit the practice and ban the "sale or distribution of any product resulting from force-feeding a bird, including foie gras."

To get the initiative on the ballot, animal advocacy group Pro-Animal DC submitted more than 46,000 signatures from D.C. voters, nearly twice the minimum required to qualify. A poll backed by the groups supporting it found 78 percent of voters favor banning foie gras, and boosters have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to promote it without facing any real organized opposition.

Passing it is one thing. Enforcing it is another. The initiative calls for fines and enforcement by city agencies, but the Council has been known to avoid funding controversial ballot measures, and few politicians have shown much zeal for supporting this one. The proposal would find restaurants and businesses caught violating the law with fines ranging from $1,000 to $5,000. Foie gras bans in California and Chicago both faced years of litigation before courts settled the question, and D.C. should expect the same.

The initiative's presence on this ballot is also no accident of timing. Complaints about this measure, and the ranked-choice voting push two years ago, encouraged the Council to pass limits on the use of ballot initiatives earlier this fall. (That Council vote on the initiative process is its own story.)

The new voting rules, briefly explained

In the November 2024 election, nearly 73 percent of voters said yes to Initiative 83, which opened up the District to ranked-choice voting. D.C. introduced ranked-choice voting in this year's June primaries, and it will be used again in November for eligible races with three or more candidates. Ranked-choice voting allows voters to rank candidates in order of preference in eligible races. If their first choice is eliminated, their vote can transfer to their next-ranked candidates who remain in the race.

Because of ranked-choice voting and mail-in ballots, results could take longer than usual to finalize. Plan accordingly. The Board of Elections has said it will not begin ranked-choice tabulation until all regular ballots are counted, and that process will run into mid-November.

Non-citizen residents should also know: while non-U.S. citizens can vote for local offices, such as mayor, attorney general, D.C. City Council, State Board of Education, Advisory Neighborhood Commissions, and ballot initiatives, they cannot vote for any federal offices.

What D.C. Residents Should Watch

• Today's final early-voting window. Early vote centers are open through Sunday, November 1, from 8:30 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. After 7 p.m., early in-person voting is finished.
• Mail ballot deadlines. All active registered D.C. voters are automatically sent a ballot. You can mail it back if it's postmarked by November 3, or return it to a ballot drop box before 8 p.m. on Election Day.
• The at-large ranked-choice count. With four candidates competing for two seats and the Home Rule Charter's partisan-balance requirement still in force, the order in which candidates are eliminated matters enormously. Watch for the Board of Elections to post each round of tabulation separately after November 13.
• Initiative 86 enforcement language. If the foie gras ban passes, watch whether the mayor's office and the Council appropriate the money to actually enforce it. At least one named chef has already indicated publicly he may keep serving foie gras regardless of the vote.
• A Ward 4 special election in early 2027. Lewis George said she will not step down from the Council until she is sworn in as mayor in January. That means a Ward 4 vacancy opens immediately after inauguration, triggering another race.
• Certification date: December 2. Official election results are tentatively scheduled to be certified on Wednesday, December 2. Until then, all results are unofficial.

Sources: NBC News D.C. early vote data (updated Nov. 1, 2026); City Cast DC voter guide; WJLA 2026 election guide; NBC4 Washington, Lewis George primary victory; PBS NewsHour/AP, June 18, 2026; WTOP, Initiative 86, Aug. 6, 2026; 51st (The DC Line) general election guide; The Hill Rag, at-large RCV mechanics, Oct. 12, 2026; FOX5 DC voter registration guide; D.C. Board of Elections.