Hello Franklins! Yesterday, September 30th, we hosted a workshop discussing all things related to voting this year, from absentee ballots to registering to vote to voter ID laws. If you want to look at what we talked about and peruse the resources we used for the workshop, here’s a link to the presentation. Here are some important dates coming up that we’d like everyone to be aware of.
The deadline to register to vote online or by mail (postmarked) is October 9th, which is next Friday. In order to register online, you need an NC driver’s license/DMV ID number AND a social security number. If you know you won’t be able to provide either of these online, start getting prepared to mail in your voter registration. More information about deadlines for requesting an absentee ballot (October 27th) and submitting your absentee ballot (November 3rd) are in the presentation, but the point I mainly want to stress is not to procrastinate with all these deadlines. Make sure you’re taking into account how long it takes for documents to travel by paper mail and how early you want to send something so you can feel that your vote will count. NC Early Voting will be October 15th-31st. This is also a reminder to fill out the 2020 Census! There is some discrepancy amongst the courts as to when census counting will end, so I recommend that if you haven’t yet, you should do so as soon as possible!
I want to link more resources here so that you can learn more and get answers to some more specific questions you may have. If you are planning to vote in person at Talley, you can learn more about that here. If you want to speak to someone one on one, you can call the 866-OUR-VOTE hotline, and you can read more about that resources here. Most of the information we presented was about voting in North Carolina, but if you are an out-of-state student, you can find resources specific to you here.