How to Register to Vote in U.S. Elections

How to Register to Vote in U.S. Elections Registering to vote is required in order to cast ballots in elections in all states except North Dakota. Under Articles I and II of the U.S.  Constitution, the manner in which federal and state elections are conducted are determined by the states. Since each state sets its own election procedures and regulations – such as voter identification laws – it is important to contact your state or local elections office to learn your state’s specific election rules. How to Vote With the exception of state-specific rules, the basic steps to voting are the same almost everywhere.Voter registration is required in every state except North Dakota.Every state allows absentee voting.Most states assign voters to vote at specific polling places or voting locations.The U.S. Election Assistance Commission lists federal election dates and deadlines by state. Who Cannot Vote? The right to vote is not universal. Some people, depending on their circumstances and state laws, will not be allowed to vote. Non-citizens, including permanent legal residents (green card holders), are not allowed to vote in any state.Some people who have been convicted of felonies cannot vote. These rules may vary by state.In some states, persons who have been legally declared mentally incapacitated cannot vote. What is Voter Registration? Voter registration is the process used by the government to ensure that everyone who votes in an election is legally eligible to do so, votes in the correct location and only votes once. Registering to vote requires that you give your correct name, current address and other information to the government office that runs elections where you live. It might be a county or state or city office. Why is Registering to Vote Important? When you register to vote, the elections office will look at your address and determine which voting district you will vote in. Voting in the right place is important because who you get to vote for depends on where you live. For example, if you live on one street, you may have one set of candidates for city council; if you live the next block over, you may be in a different council ward and be voting for completely different people. Usually, the people in a voting district (or precinct) all go to vote in the same location. Most voting districts are fairly small, though in rural areas a district can stretch for miles. Whenever you move, you should register or re-register to vote in order to make sure you always vote in the right place. Who Can Register to Vote? To register in any state, you need to be a U.S. citizen, 18 or older by the next election, and a resident of the state. Most, but not all, states have two other rules as well: 1) you cant be a felon (someone who has committed a serious crime), and 2) you cant be mentally incompetent. In a few places, you can vote in local elections even if you are not a U.S. citizen. To check the rules for your state, call your state or local elections office. College Students: College students who live away from their parents or hometown can usually register legally in either place. Where Can You Register to Vote? Since elections are run by states, cities, and counties, the rules on registering to vote are not the same everywhere. But there are some rules that apply everywhere: for example, under the Motor Voter law, motor vehicle offices across the United States must offer voter registration application forms. Other places required the National Voter Registration Act to offer voter registration forms and assistance include: state or local government offices such as public libraries, public schools, offices of city and county clerks (including marriage license bureaus), fishing and hunting license bureaus, government revenue (tax) offices, unemployment compensation offices, and government offices that provide services to persons with disabilities. You can also register to vote by mail. You can call your local elections office, and ask them to send you a voter registration application in the mail. Just fill it out and send it back. Election offices are usually listed in the phone book in the government pages section. It may be listed under elections, the board of elections, supervisor of elections, or city, county or township clerk, registrar or auditor. Especially when elections are coming up, the political parties set up voter registration stations at public places like a shopping mall and college campuses. They may try to get you to register as a member of their political party, but you dont have to do so in order to register. NOTE: Filling out the voter registration form does not mean that you are actually registered to vote. Sometimes application forms get lost, or people dont fill them out correctly, or other mistakes happen. If in a few weeks you have not received a card from the elections office telling you that you are registered, give them a call. If theres a problem, ask them to send you a new registration form, fill it out carefully and mail it back. The Voter Registration card you receive will probably tell you exactly where you should go to vote. Keep your Voter Registration card in a safe place, its important. What Information Will You Have to Provide? While voter registration application forms will vary depending on your state, county or city, they will always ask for your name, address, date of birth and status of U.S. citizenship. You also have to give your drivers license number, if you have one, or the last four digits of your Social Security number. If you dont have either a drivers license or a Social Security number, the state will assign you a voter identification number. These numbers are to help the state keep track of voters. Check the form carefully, including the back, to see the rules for the place where you live. Party Affiliation: Most registration forms will ask you for a choice of political party affiliation. If you wish to do so, you can register as a member of any political party, including Republican, Democrat or any third party, like Green, Libertarian or Reform. You can also choose to register as independent or no party. Be aware that in some states, if you dont select a party affiliation when you register, you will not be allowed to vote in that partys primary elections. Even if you do not select a political party and do not vote in any party primary elections, you will be allowed to vote in the general election for any candidate. When Should You Register? In most states, you need to register at least 30 days before Election Day. In Connecticut, you can register up until 14 days before an election, in Alabama 10 days. Federal law says that you cant be required to register more than 30 days before the election. Details on registration deadlines in each state can be found on the U.S. Election Assistance Commission Web site. Six states have same-day registration - Idaho, Maine, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Wisconsin and Wyoming. You can go to the polling place, register and vote at the same time. You should bring some identification and proof of where you live. In North Dakota, you can vote without registering. Parts of this article are excerpted from the public domain document I Registered, Did You? distributed by the League of Women Voters.

Learning to Write by Reading

Learning to Write by Reading Learning to Write by Reading Learning to Write by Reading By Michael You might think avoiding other influences makes you a more original writer. But nobody can write in a vacuum. Even the meanings of words depend on how others have used them. You didnt invent the English language. Everything you write, you learned from someone else, even if only from your first grade teacher. Only when youre aware of your influences as a writer can you transcend them, instead of unconsciously copying them. Instead, reading other writers (which you already do) and learning from their style will help you develop your own, original style. Besides improving your vocabulary, it will give you a wider array of tools from which you can choose. You may recognize your own style as you read someone elses. Or you may learn what you dont want to sound like. Choosing your influences Which writers should an aspiring writer read? You should read the great ones there, thats vague enough. Start with the classics of world literature, because many people over many years have confirmed theyre worth reading. You can search Google for greatest writers of all time to see a list. Include modern authors as well, because thats what you are. My colleague Mark Nichol suggests four books that demonstrate specific writing skills. But be warned: take advice on what writers to read, but not whom you must imitate. You can never be anyone but yourself. In 18th century England, everyone thought they needed to write like Lord Chesterfield, but that was a bad idea even in the 18th century. Imitate the writers you want to be like its more profound than it sounds. As Ive said before, you are what you read. Reading influences your style, and as you discover your true style, you have an obligation to keep developing it. Even great writers might be imitated for the wrong reasons. Perhaps another writers uniqueness shouldnt be imitated, since you have your own. Perhaps he or she can get away with breaking rules that you and I shouldnt try to, not until we become more skilled. Until we do, no wonder our writing doesnt quite work. Or it might be a writers persona that draws us, rather than their skill. Many aspiring writers long to be irreverent free-spirits, but that doesnt make them good writers. Mixing a drink like Ernest Hemingway will not make you write like him. (Hemingway himself retorted, Have you ever heard of anyone who drank while he worked? You’re thinking of Faulkner. He does sometimes.) Some great literary figures were great partly because of their suffering, and you may not want that. Some of them were mentally ill. Imitate writers because of how they write, not because of what they write about. Some writers became popular only because they landed on the popular side of popular controversies. As Kurt Vonnegut wrote about his fictitious novelist Kilgore Trout, His prose was frightful. Only his ideas were good.† Other writers camouflage their bad ideas with excellent writing, but its dangerous to imitate interesting writers who write badly. Developing your tools Choose the writers who can do what you want to do, so you can learn how to do it yourself. Like many people, my favorite writer Connie Willis could never guess the murderer in Agatha Christie novels. She wanted to learn how to surprise her readers too, so she studied Agatha Christies plots to figure out how she did it, and it paid off. Now critics call her a novelist who can plot like Agatha Christie. If youre writing within a genre, you need to learn the genre, but its more important to learn the skills. In other words, dont say, Okay, I like J.R.R. Tolkien, so I want to learn to write about orcs. Orcs have been done enough already. If you really want to give orcs a fresh face (and orcs are not known for their facial beauty), you first need to learn to write about evil, or danger, or enemies. So find authors who understand those things, whatever their genre. If you are organizing a dangerous quest, you dont need to imitate the way Gandalf organized one in Bilbo Baggins hobbit hole. You could find inspiration for that in Moby Dick or Treasure Island. Professor Tolkien would be ashamed if all you learned from his writings was how to talk like an orc. You can imitate the style of others as you develop your own, but theres no need to imitate their ideas. If youre writing about danger, sure, read how other writers depict danger. Read what they say, then decide what you want to say. It should not be the same thing. That is not the kind of imitation Im talking about. How you feel about danger will be different because youre different. Thats your unique contribution. How to absorb a writers influence Besides reading, what other ways can you learn from an author? Copy out passages that you like. Copying focuses your attention by slowing down your reading. You can learn better by involving the hand as well as the eye. Read out loud. While youre at it, why not read regularly to those who cant read for themselves? That helps you, the aspiring writer, as well as the preschool future reader, or the elderly person with failing sight. Create templates from favorite sentences, similar to the Mad Libs game, and fill the structure with your own words. For example, based on the first line of Edith Whartons Ethan Frome: NAME VERB the NOUN, bit by bit, from ADJECTIVE NOUN, and each time it was a ADJECTIVE NOUN. Adapted original: I had the story, bit by bit, from various people, and each time it was a different story. Parody an authors style while writing on a subject that he never would have. Thats how the Bad Hemingway Contest kept going for nearly 30 years. Parodying Ernest Hemingway is an attractive target that has tempted distinguished writers such as E. B. White, Raymond Chandler, F. Scott Fitzgerald and George Plimpton. Imitation doesnt need to be a form of flattery. You can learn a lot about a writers style when you make gentle fun of him or her. W. H. Auden, in his 1962 essay â€Å"The Poet and the City,† says that in his imaginary College for Bards, the only critical exercise required of students would be the writing of parodies. Authors who learned writing by copying out passages, even entire books, include Jack London, Benjamin Franklin, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Hunter S. Thompson. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Writing Basics category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Program vs. ProgrammeRunning Amok or Running Amuck?20 Criminal Terms You Should Know