To have a voice in your government, the deadline is coming soon.
October 12 is the deadline to register to vote for the November election.
Here’s what Ed Ryan, the Democratic election commissioner for Onondaga County, says about who can register to vote:
“You need to be a resident of Onondaga County. You need to be 18 years of age. You can fill out your form. Make sure you put an address. We do not accept P.O. boxes. And we would be happy to have you come down to register to vote.”
(Ed Ryan, the Democratic commissioner with the Onondaga County Board of Elections)
Other requirements are:
- You must have been living at your present address for at least 30 days.
- You must not be in prison or on parole for a felony conviction.
- You must not have been declared mentally incompetent by a court.
- And you cannot claim the right to vote elsewhere.
The process for registering is easy. Rhonda Hungerford is the co-president of the Syracuse chapter of League of Women Voters. She has some tips on the registration process:
“They can print out the voter registration form. And once they fill out the form, it needs to be either mailed into the board or brought into the Board of Elections. And they are located on 1000 Eerie Boulevard West in Syracuse. But the easiest way is to mail it in. There’s other ways of getting the voter registration form.”
(Rhonda Hungerford, co-president, Syracuse chapter of the League of Women Voters)
You may get voter registration forms at the following places:
- The Syracuse Post Office at 720 University Avenue, and
- The Onondaga Public Library at 447 S. Salina Street in the lobby.
This year, you can also register online. Erik Opsal is the spokesman for the Brennan Center at New York University. He explains the online process:
“You can actually go online and register through New York’s My DMV website. That will automatically register at whatever address you are at and you can look up your polling location from there.”
(Erik Opsal, spokesman for the Brennan Center at New York University)
If you haven’t voted in five years, you’ll need to register again. Election Commissioner Ed Ryan explains the problem for what is called “inactive voters”:
“We have about 30,000 of them who have registered at one time and have chosen not to vote in the last five years. If they are not on the active list, they can still come in and vote by affidavit.”
(Ed Ryan, Democratic election commissioner for Onondaga County.)
An “affidavit” is a kind of paper ballot. Your address will be verified and your vote counted later.
If you’re in the military or away from home for some other reason, you can vote by absentee ballot. You can download the application for an absentee ballot from the Onondaga County Board of Election website. Deadline for applying for the absentee ballot is November 5.
The Syracuse League of Women Voters encourages students and new residents to consider voting in Onondaga County instead of by absentee ballot. Absentee ballots are sent in the mail by your home county. You can request one from your home county’s board of elections by visiting Vote 411.
Election day is November 6.
For Democracywise, I’m Janine Mack.
(Janine Mack is a graduate student in broadcast and digital journalism.)
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