Are You Registered?

As registration deadlines fall, hints of voter boom emerge

"If you walk into our mail room, we have stacks and stacks of new forms coming in," said Kara Sinkule, spokeswoman for Georgia Secretary of State Cathy Cox, who oversees elections. "It's a great problem to have." Her state is on pace to see a 50% increase in new voters for this presidential election compared to 2000. In the past year, 371,376 new voters registered, with 87,110 new voters in September alone. And the surge grew even bigger in the first few days of October.

So are you registered? For many states, registration deadlines started this weekend, but it's not too late for others. If you don't want to deal with potential traffic jams at your local office, then do it online and mail it. Many states require that your registration be postmarked before the deadline, so it doesn't matter if they get it (or process it) after the deadline.

I registered online and it wasn't near as hard as I thought it would be. All I did was hit one of the many sites, answered a couple questions and got a printable PDF file of all my info all formatted nicely on the official form. Then I printed that out, followed the added directions for my state (New York) and mailed it to the address at the bottom of it. Done. If you're worried about it being "lost", spend a few extra cents at the post office and slap a Delivery Confirmation sticker on the envelope.

Yeah there are problems with the electronic voting machines in many places, but it doesn't matter. If you're 18+, be a part of history with millions of others and cast a vote this year. If you'd like to take it a step further, join the Election Watch Crew over @ blackboxvoting.org and make history there as well by reporting any shady tactics that might be going on at your local voting booth. If you're not 18 yet, you can still help by way of bugging everyone over 18 that you know to go vote.

Places to register to online:
rockthevote.com
declareyourself.com
smackdownyourvote.com
registrationbyworkingassets.com