Two Haitians vote on the same day, under the same decree, in the same election. One is registered in Cap-Haïtien, the other in Jacmel. They will be handed different pieces of paper, with different races and completely different names on them. Neither is getting special treatment. That is simply how the ballot is built, and almost nobody is told before they walk in.
In short
Your ballot is decided by where you registered, not by where you live on the day and not by anything you choose. Art. 179 of the decree defines five electoral territories, nested inside one another, and each one puts a different race on your paper: the whole country for the president, your département for the senators, your municipal collectivity for the deputy, your commune for the mayor, and your communal section for the CASEC and the ASEC. On 13 December you receive a separate ballot for each race being contested plus one for the constitutional ratification (art. 236). On 21 February you receive the local ballots, and a runoff ballot only for the national races your own territory has not already settled.
Five territories, and they decide everything
Art. 179 is the sentence the whole thing rests on. It defines what an electoral district means for each office, and it is worth reading as a list because it is, in effect, the recipe for your ballot.
| Office | The territory that elects it | How many you elect |
|---|---|---|
| President | The entire national territory | 1, shared with every other voter in Haiti |
| Senators | Your département | 3, elected together |
| Deputy | Your municipal collectivity, the electoral circonscription | 1 (art. 181) |
| Mayor and municipal council | Your commune | A team of 3 (art. 108) |
| CASEC | Your communal section | A team of 3 (art. 114) |
| ASEC | Your communal section | 5, 7 or 9, depending on the size of the electorate (art. 120) |
Read down that middle column and you have the answer to why no two ballots look alike. Only the first line is the same for everyone in the country. Everything below it narrows: ten départements, then more than a hundred circonscriptions, then communes, then 571 communal sections. By the time you reach the CASEC and ASEC races, your ballot is shared with your neighbours and almost nobody else. Read: The ladder, how all the posts fit together
13 December: four papers
Art. 236 sets the arithmetic. The president of the bureau passes your CIN to the vice-president, who hands you one ballot for the popular ratification and one ballot for each elective post being contested that day. On 13 December those posts are the presidency, the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies. So four separate papers, each with its own box:
- the constitutional ratification, one question, a green Oui / Wi box and a white Non box (art. 220.1);
- the president, one national race;
- the senators of your département, three seats decided together;
- the deputy of your circonscription, one seat.
You are entitled to one of each and cannot be issued another (art. 236). Read: The constitutional ratification
21 February: the local ballots, and a runoff only if you need one
The second date is the one people misread, because it is doing two unrelated jobs at once.
For the national races, February is a second round, and only where the first round did not settle the seat. If your département elected its three senators outright in December, there is no senatorial ballot for you in February. If your circonscription's deputy won outright, no deputy ballot. Two voters in neighbouring communes can therefore receive a different number of papers on the same February morning. Read: The two-round system explained
For the local races — municipal council, CASEC and ASEC — 21 February is not a second round at all. It is their first and only round, held by list or cartel (art. 74). Every registered voter gets those three ballots that day, whatever happened in December.
The local races are teams, not people
This is where blank votes come from, and it is worth understanding before you are standing in the booth.
You do not elect a mayor. You elect a cartel: three people running as one, a mayor and two assesseurs, and the cartel must include at least one woman (art. 108). The cartel with the most valid votes wins, and the roles are assigned according to the order printed on the ballot (art. 109). The order is not decoration; it decides which of the three names becomes mayor.
The CASEC works the same way: three members, a president and two assesseurs, at least one woman, and the cartel with the most valid votes takes the council (arts. 114 and 115).
The ASEC is the one that surprises people, because its size is not fixed. Art. 120 sets it by the number of registered voters in the communal section:
| Registered electors in the section | ASEC members elected | Of whom women, at least |
|---|---|---|
| Under 10,000 | 5 | 2 |
| 10,001 to 20,000 | 7 | 3 |
| More than 20,000 | 9 | 3 |
The cartel with the most valid votes is elected for four years (art. 121). So on the ASEC ballot you are choosing a whole assembly in a single mark — and the number of people that mark sends into office depends on how many voters live around you. Read: The ASEC
The senate ballot is the unusual one
Every other race on your paper fills one seat or one team. The senatorial race fills three seats at once, and the three winners do not serve the same length of time. Art. 90 provides that, for these elections, the senator elected with the most votes receives a six-year mandate, the second-placed a four-year mandate, and the third two years. That is how the chamber's renewal by thirds gets restarted after every seat fell vacant at once.
It also means the February senatorial ballot, where there is one, can take three different shapes. If no seat was filled in December, the second round is run with the six leading candidates (art. 91). If one senator was elected outright, four candidates contest the two remaining seats and voters mark two of them (art. 92). If two were elected, two candidates contest the last seat and voters mark one (art. 93).
One honest note. The decree states plainly how many names you mark in the second round; for the first round, the articles governing the senatorial ballot do not give a number. On the day, the instruction printed on the ballot and given by the bureau is what governs — read it before you mark, and if it is not clear, ask the president of the bureau. Read: The senator
The box that belongs to you
Every candidate ballot carries a box marked “aucun candidat ou aucun cartel”, placed at the far right, at the bottom, technically detached (art. 220). Marking it is a valid vote: art. 242 counts it among the valid ballots, and art. 243 provides that these votes can never be attributed to a candidate or a cartel, nor occupy a place in the ranking.
That matters for the local races in particular. If you reach the CASEC ballot and genuinely do not know any of the cartels, the honest option is not to leave the paper blank — a blank or confused paper is simply null (art. 244). The honest option is the box that says none of them. Read: Myth vs. fact
Why the map is still provisional
One layer of this is not settled, and we would rather say so than pretend otherwise. Art. 181 provides that each electoral circonscription elects one deputy and that the list of circonscriptions is annexed to the decree — an annex that has not been published. Pamelection therefore works from the 119 circonscriptions set out in the annex to the electoral decree of 1 December 2025, the most recent district list to appear in Le Moniteur.
In practice that means the presidential, senatorial and local layers of your ballot are firm, and the deputy layer is the one to verify against the CEP's own publication when the candidate lists go up. It is also why any tool that shows you your ballot, including ours, should tell you which map it is using.
What to do before 13 December
- Know your two coordinates. Your commune and your communal section determine four of the six races on your ballot. They come from your registration, not from where you happen to be that morning.
- Check the list, then the centre. The electoral lists are published on 13 November 2026, thirty days before the vote (arts. 62 and 71). Read: Finding your voting centre
- Look up the small races first. Nobody needs help recognising the presidential candidates. The CASEC and ASEC races are the ones where recognition fails, and they are the ones closest to your street.
- Remember that no one may run twice. Art. 146 bars any citizen from standing for two elective posts at once, or appearing on more than one cartel list, on pain of rejection. A name on your ballot is running for exactly one thing.
Questions people ask
How many ballots will I be given?
Four on 13 December: the ratification, the president, the senators and the deputy (art. 236). On 21 February, the three local ballots plus a runoff ballot for each national race your own territory has not already decided. See 13 December: four papers.
Why does my cousin in another commune have a different ballot?
Because four of the six races are drawn from territories you do not share: the circonscription for the deputy, the commune for the mayor, and the communal section for the CASEC and the ASEC (art. 179). Only the presidential race is identical for everyone. See Five territories.
I don't recognise anyone in the CASEC race. What should I do?
Use the “aucun candidat ou aucun cartel” box (art. 220). It is a valid, counted vote that is attributed to nobody (arts. 242 and 243) — unlike a blank or over-marked paper, which is simply null (art. 244). See The box that belongs to you.
Do I vote for a mayor by name?
No. You vote for a cartel of three, and the order printed on the ballot decides which member becomes mayor (arts. 108 and 109). See The local races are teams, not people.
Will everyone vote in February?
Yes, but not on the same things. Everyone votes in the local races, which have their single round that day; the national runoff ballots go only to voters whose département or circonscription still has a seat to fill. See 21 February.
What it changes in your daily life
The papers you are handed on election day are not a national form. They are a description of where you registered, assembled from five nested territories, and the further down that list you read, the fewer people in Haiti share your ballot with you.
That is an argument for preparing differently than most people do. The presidential race will find you whether you look for it or not — it is on the radio for months. The races that decide whether your section has a functioning council, whether your commune's markets and drainage get attended to, and who sits in the assembly that starts the whole indirect chain, are on the same paper, in smaller type, with names you will only recognise if you looked them up in advance. Ten minutes with your commune and your section, before 13 December, is what turns four unfamiliar papers into four decisions you actually made.