Probably most folks here who are eligible are already registered, but here is a good site from National Public Radio, you can find out how to register in any state. Obviously, this is non-partisan. The more people who register, and vote, the healthier our democracy is.

https://apps.npr.org/voter-registration-2024-mail/

And, here is a link to the League of Women Voters. Again, non-partisan.

https://www.lwv.org

I just returned from my local library. The League of Women Voters had a table there. I am registered. I just cannot decide whether to vote in person or vote by mail. Will have to decide soon.

Please excuse my ignorance!

Is registration done on an election by election basis, or as a routine (annually) as in, for example, the UK?

Good question. It is state by state, rather than national, but I think most or all states have a system by which you register once, and then remain registered until an event such as move to a different jurisdiction, die, etc. There’s not a regular annual update, as in UK. So this is problematic, as the list obviously gets old and contains excess people (died, moved away etc.)

So, there’s always a big effort in the months before an election to encourage new people to sign up (young people, new citizens, new residents, folks who’ve just never registered before.)

Young people are usually registered at school - junior year of high school, I think. There are other times you’ll be asked if you want to register - for instance, if you apply for a driving license, which implies you’ve just moved to a new state, so a great reminder to register to vote.

But, I think the UK system makes a lot of sense - legally require every registered voter to update their registration each year (if there are changes that need to be taken care of.) If that happened here, a lot of this current nonsense, such as people complaining that the registration rolls are seriously inaccurate, would be avoided.

OK, thanks for that!

My wife is doing that today! She’s got a table at the local college library, and she’s answering questions about the election, the ballot initiative, etc, also registering people if they need to do so.

She is also a poll worker, so works on early voting days and Election Day. In NY, everyone works in pairs; a registered democrat and a registered Republican side by side. She’s worked with the same woman for several years, so as you can imagine, there’s a lot of catching up on family history each year. And showing your family photos etc.

A lot of states have been "cleansing" the voter registration lists, so if you haven't voted recently, have moved and not told them, or they suspect you are a Democrat, they'll remove you from the list and you won't find out until you try to vote. Adds a bit of faff in places that have same-day registration, but not good for places that don't.

Speaking of state-by-state, something which has always surprised me.... the method of counting votes is not consistent between states. Many have the traditional 'first-past-the-post' system (some with a second runoff election if no-one gets a majority), but several states have ranked choice/transferable votes for local, state and sometimes even US congressional elections. Even the electoral college for presidential elections has some differences between states - most allocate all their electoral college votes to one candidate, but some distribute votes between candidates.

Maine and Nebraska are the only 2 States where the votes in a presidential election are divided proportionally between the State Electors. This question came up the other week in an episode of University Challenge.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United...ctoral_College

When we moved to a place in Texas in 2004 (Montgomery County) we registered to vote when we exchanged our Louisiana drivers licence for a Texas one. We never needed to register again, simply turned up each year to an early voting location and our name was always on the register to vote. We left in 2017 so I don’t know if annual registration has been introduced since then. Where we are in the UK we get a letter each year stating who is registered to vote at this address and to change it if anything has changed.

They still have that? I remember Bamber Gascoigne hosting it many years ago before the days of colour TV (spell check wants me to change the spelling of color....lol). Had no idea it was still going!

It is on its 3rd host now. After Bamber Gascoigne, Jeremy Paxman took up the role for the next 29 years before retiring through ill health after the end of the 2023 season. Amol Rajan is the new host.

I've been registered to vote since the age of 18. My problem is where is a worthy candidate to vote for instead of voting for the lesser of both evils??

Vote for Elvis.
(I had to look again to make sure )

I'm coming up on my first interstate move as a citizen. I can easily find how to register to vote in my new state, but nothing about how to "deregister" in NY. Any ideas?