Alright, so this is the first presidential election that I’m old enough to vote in. Everyone makes the big point “You have to register 30 days before the election!”
Ok, so I mail my forms in September 18th thinking, “Great, this leaves me plenty of time, so that in case the forms get lost in the mail, I can resubmit them a second time before the registration deadline.”
Well, today I come home from college after being back for two weeks, and my mom informs me that my registration card arrived TODAY. On the back, under Registration Date, it says 10/14/04. WTF?
Not only that, but the card also says “Card must be received 30 days before election.”
Excuse me? I thought the REGISTRATION DEADLINE was 30 days before the election. And there is no way in hell that the postal service is SO SLOW that my forms didn’t get there well before the deadline. So shouldn’t I be registered for the day they FILED my forms, and not for NEXT THURSDAY!?
And if you need to get your card back 30 days before the election, why all the huff about registering 30 days before? Shouldn’t they be telling people to register TWO months before since the people who do the file work seem to be so fucking slow?
You sent in forms to get a registration form? Or you have received your registration card? IIRC, if you have received the card you are good to go. I’m reading that as saying you are good to go as of 10-14-04.
I got my forms online, printed them, and sent them in. I got my voter card today. But the card says it needs to be RECEIVED 30 days before the election.
In my admittedly limited experience (and a difference of states), I think that means that YOU are supposed to receive that card 30 days before the election. You then take it to your polling place on the 2nd.
“Pennsylvania law provides that the deadline to apply to register to vote is
30 days prior to each election.”
Unfortunately, I think you’re going to have to take this up with your local voting center, and ask them if you’re a registered voter. It really sucks if it takes three weeks for a voter registration form to find its way into the system, but it wouldn’t surprise me if that were the case.
I’m pretty sure you’ll be able to vote - if you have the card and you’re on the lists, you’re entitled to vote.
I’m a bit annoyed and have a similar issue - I was just married a month ago, and I was planning to change my name on my driver’s license and social security card a couple of weeks ago. I’m also registered to vote through the BMV, and I figured it didn’t matter when I changed my name. Work and life have caught up with me, I didn’t get to the BMV, and now I can’t go in to change my name until AFTER the election, or I lose my right to vote. Ohio requires that you register before October 4 with a name change or you’ll be unable to vote in the November 2 election.
Considering I’m in a swing state, I’ll wait another month and deal with the confusion of having two names so that I can get my vote in. This election is too important to waste even one vote.
Each state may be a little different, Soapbox, but I’m a registrar for Illinois. In our training they stressed that applications must be received by the cut off date. The actual voter’s card is just proof back of registration. We ran extra shifts at work right up to 9:00 p.m. on the cutoff date to handle the rush of people registering to vote. We told them specifically that while they should receive their cards in the mail before the election, the card wasn’t required. Their names should still be on the voters list at the polls, and that’s what counts.
Bet you can find out easily enough by a simple call to whatever office handles voters reg for you.
Rather than waiting until November, contact the election office for your county. I dropped off my paperwork on Monday, and they said I’d get a card within 2 weeks. Even if for some odd reason your name does not appear on the registration list, you still have the right to cast a provisional ballot.
Your county’s election website might have the information. I recently moved (a whopping six blocks), so I reregistered with my new address. Then I got a card from the registrar’s office asking if I’d moved. Yes, dumbfucks, that’s why I reregistered! I sent back the card acknowledging that yes, I had indeed moved, but on the cutoff date, which was a couple days ago, I freaked and looked up the election website to call them and make sure that I was registered correctly and lo and behold, all I had to do was punch my name and address into the site and they had all the information I could ever want, right there, including my polling place and a sample ballot.