Registered to vote (Flickr)
Just a reminder that today is National Register to Vote Day. There are many local voter registration events going on around the country, or you could visit the official National Register to Vote website. We noticed it was having some traffic issues earlier, so you could also try Rock the Vote, Election Protection or the U.S. Election Assistance Commission website.
According to the Pew Center on the States, about 1 in 4 eligible voters in the United States are not registered to vote. Even more concerning is that 1 in 8 registered voters have registrations that are incorrect or are ineligible for some reason. For example, if you’ve moved, most states require that you update your address. Be sure that your registration is valid by visiting your secretary of state’s website or calling the election department at your state house.
As we’ve noted many times over the past few months, voter ID laws are a trend that has swept the nation in the past 2-3 years. If you live in a state like Pennsylvania or New York, you may need to bring specific types of ID to the polls to prove your identity on election day. You should make sure you have all the proper documents by visiting the Election Protection website’s interactive map. It lists the voter identification requirements for each state, as well as information about voting early, obtaining absentee ballots and poll locations.
If you run into any problems registering to vote, please be sure to let us know. Here’s a message from Bill about voter suppression.
We’re interested in hearing your stories and making sure that everyone who wants to gets to exercise their right to vote in November.
