Make sure you are registered to vote

Politics & Elections
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Go to Vote.org, or, if you are reading this in the dead-tree edition, type vote.org/am-i-registered-to-vote into your browser, spend 30 seconds entering your name, address and date of birth, and you’ll find out instantly if your voter registration is current. If not, follow the instructions to register.

Next, click this link or type vote.org/absentee-ballot into your browser, and sign yourself up to receive an absentee ballot for the November election. That takes about two minutes.

Finally, make sure your friends and family do the same. If they’re technology-challenged, help them through it or give them the phone numbers for their states’ elections offices, available here at the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, eac.gov/voters/election-day-contact-information.

Do not panic if your first go-round says you’re not registered. I came up “not registered,” and KNOW I am and even entered the info from the current registration card I was holding in my hand at the time. If you come up not registered, you’ll get a “What do I do now?” option and I chose to have the site check Texas state records, and sure enough, my reg popped up. Another option is to register (again). Our motto in Texas is “vote early and often.”

You also have the option to sign up for an absentee ballot, but I guess this depends on whether your state/county permits them. Worth a try.

Note that an email address is required but a cell phone number is optional (I opted out). And they warn you that you will get communications from them. I have a yahoo address that I used for stuff like this so my main email addy isn’t cluttered up. Suggest if you don’t have a junk-mail address, you gitchyseff one post haste.

I don’t have to tell anyone how important it is to make sure you’re registered. This is a simple way. Or figure out some other way, if this process bothers/offends you or makes you suspicious, but do it somehow.

The Trump Administration: A Clusterfuck in the Making Part Deux (Part 1)
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I tried, but the form didn’t recognise my state.
And absentee voting likely is a non-starter, sorry.

I need you lot to delivery the desired result by your good selves.

3

https://www.axios.com/how-to-vote-by-state-2020-307c3d17-ee57-4a1b-8bad-182ca1cdb752.html

Millions of Americans who normally vote in person on election day will turn to early voting or mail-in ballots this fall — but that only works if you understand your state’s election rules, deadlines and how to ensure your vote is counted.

Driving the news: Axios is launching an interactive resource, built on research by RepresentUs, a nonpartisan election reform group, to help voters across the country to get the information they need.

  • “This election year, voters need to take more time and effort to navigate the challenges of a pandemic,” U.S. Elections Assistance Commissioner Donald Palmer tells Axios.
  • It will be critical for voters to have updated information on their options “to make sure that this election is a true reflection of the will of the people,” said Matt Strabone, senior counsel for RepresentUs.
    …

Why it matters: The more early voting there is, the greater the impacts if there are problems with the U.S. Postal Service, ballot shortages, confusion, lawsuits or delays.
…

Useful info and whatnot in this article. Not paywalled.

4

This is a good reminder, but anyone can go to their county’s registrar of voters web page and likely do all the same things, but without sharing your email address and getting on Vote.org’s emailing list.

In my county all I had to enter to confirm or change anything is the house number (not the full address), my birth date, and zip code.

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True. My intention is to remind and to make it super easy for someone who may not have thought to go to the county’s website.

I have a junk email address I use for stuff like this, but even so, as soon as you get your first email from them, you can unsubscribe. I did and haven’t gotten anything since that first one.

6

Yup. Or call up your county board of elections on the phone.