During the period of 14 days prior to Election Day through and including Election Day, an individual can go to the office of their County Elections Offices to conditionally register to vote and vote a provisional ballot.  This process is called Conditional Voter Registration (CVR). 

In order to conditionally register, the individual must first complete an affidavit of registration (also known as a Voter Registration Card).  After that they are given a CVR provisional ballot to vote. 

Once the county elections official processes the affidavit of registration, determines the individual’s eligibility to register, and validates the individual’s information, the registration becomes permanent and the CVR provisional ballot will be counted.  This process occurs before or during the canvass period.

Conditional voter registrations are treated and processed the same as other registrations; CVR provisional ballots are treated and processed the same as other provisional ballots.                 

CVR was enacted in 2012, to be operative on the January 1st after the certification of a statewide voter registration database.  (Assembly Bill 1436 [Feuer], Ch. 497, Stats. of 2012.) VoteCal, California’s statewide voter registration database, was certified on September 26, 2016;  CVR became operative as of January 1, 2017. 

You may check the status of your voter registration at voterstatus.sos.ca.gov.  

CVR is found in Elections Code sections 2170 through 2173.