Illustration : Chelsea Beck ( GMG )

The midterm elections are only a few weeks off, and if ever there’s a time to participate in the electoral process, it’s now. But as of November 2016, only 70 percent of U.S. citizens over age 18 were registered to vote, which means that more than 65 million people who are eligible to register have not done so.




Some people don’t register simply because they don’t want to vote. But many others (and maybe you’re among them) believe that they can’t or shouldn’t get registered because they’re not allowed, or because their registration could come at a personal cost.

Are you actually ineligible to vote? Is it true that you can protect yourself by not registering? Let’s examine some common beliefs about the registration process and find out.


“I can’t register to vote because I don’t have an ID for the state where I currently live.”

When you fill out a voter registration form, you can use your in-state ID OR the last four digits of your social security number. I’ll be honest with you: I moved to a new state six months ago and still haven’t bothered to get a new driver’s license. But I registered to vote here just as soon as I had an address.

The only difference it makes if you don’t have an in-state ID is that you may need to bring a federally-issued ID with you to the polls in order to cast your vote. HeadCount provides a list of exactly which forms of ID are acceptable at the polls in each state (and we’ve got a list that includes requirements for every state here). But for registration, simply your SSN is good enough.

Bottom line: You do not need a current state-issued ID to register to vote.


“If I don’t register to vote, I won’t have to serve jury duty.”

In most states, voter registration is one of many lists used to call jurors. In Texas or New York, for example, you can be summoned for jury duty if your name appears on a voter registration list, or if you have a state ID; have filed for income tax or unemployment; etc. In these states, being registered to vote makes you no more likely to get called for jury duty than simply having a driver’s license.


States like California, Maine, and Florida, on the other hand, leave voter registration lists out of the jury summons process entirely; they use other lists (like drivers licenses and utility company lists) to find jurors.

This claim is not completely baseless, however. It’s true that there are some counties in a handful of states that exclusively use voter registration lists to summon jurors. As far as I can tell, they are Louisiana, Alabama, South Dakota, and Tennessee’s Eastern District and Western District (but weirdly NOT Tennessee’s Middle District). If avoiding jury duty at all costs is your ultimate goal, you can look at your own district court’s website to find out exactly how they get you. (And if you want to go down a deep rabbit hole of reading the minutiae of your state’s statutes on juror selection, have at it.)


Bottom line: In the majority of states, registering to vote makes you no more likely to get called for jury duty than having a state ID or paying state taxes.


“If I don’t register to vote, I can’t be drafted into the military.”

This claim is entirely false. Virtually all men must register with Selective Service once they turn 18, or before they turn 26—even if you are an undocumented immigrant, even if you are a citizen living outside of the country, even if you are an amputee. So you definitely don’t get an exception just because you’re not registered to vote.


Bottom line: Voter registration has nothing to do with the draft.


“If I register to vote at my new address, then I’ll have to update my car insurance.”

Let’s say that you grow up in rural West Virginia, buy and insure a car there, and then go to college in downtown Chicago. If you update your voter registration to your Chicago address, will your car insurance company KNOW that you don’t live in West Virginia anymore and raise your rates accordingly? Will you be required to match your insurance address to your voter registration district?


According to the Brennan Center for Justice, “Car insurance should not be affected by your voter registration or your legal residency more generally. Your car insurance rate is determined by where your car is located and where you drive it. If you are a student who brings your car with you to school, your insurance company may change your rate because you are driving in a different environment, but voter registration is irrelevant to this determination.”

Bottom line: Your car does not need to be insured at the same address where you’re registered to vote.


“I can’t register to vote because I’ve been convicted of a crime.”

Although you do lose your voting rights as a convicted felon in most states, those rights can be restored once you are done serving your sentence. If you were registered before going to prison, you will need to re-register once you’re out, but in most states it is irrelevant that you served time in the interim.


Here is an easy to parse, state-by-state chart of when in the criminal justice process your voting rights are returned to you. In Maine and Vermont, you can even register to vote throughout your time in prison. In most other states, you can register upon release from prison or upon completion of your parole and probation periods.

If you’ve been convicted of a misdemeanor, most states allow you to keep your voting rights with no interruption. However, there are some states that may remove those rights just during the weeks or months that you serve in prison: Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. If you’ve served time for a misdemeanor since you last voted, you may want to re-register now, just to make sure.


Aaron Ghitelman is the Director of Communications for HeadCount, a nonpartisan organization that works with musicians to promote participate in democracy. He says, “The best feeling I have when I’m registering people to vote is when someone says, ‘Sorry, I can’t, I’ve been convicted of a felony,’ and then I pull up their state laws and get to tell them, ‘Actually, you can.’ Every voter registration is meaningful, but those are something really special.”

Bottom line: In most states, convicted felons can register to vote once they’ve served their sentences.


“I can’t register to vote because I don’t have a permanent address.”

Nonprofit VOTE says, “Persons experiencing homelessness can register and vote in all 50 states.” To register, you will need to provide a place where you can receive mail (e.g. an address for a local relative, agency, or church), and/or a description of where you live (e.g. the name of a park or street corner). The National Coalition for the Homeless provides a chart of which of these two pieces of information you need to provide, depending on your state.


Bottom line: The right to vote is not in any way contingent upon having a home address.


“I can’t register to vote because I’m living abroad.”

According to the U.S. Vote Foundation, “U.S. citizens living abroad have the right to vote as absentee voters, provided they are eligible to vote in their state. If you are living outside of the U.S. permanently, indefinitely, or temporarily, your voting rights stay with you, even if you never voted when you lived in the U.S.” And they add, “Many states allow children who were born overseas, but never lived in the U.S., to use their U.S. parents’ last residence address to register.”


In other words, if you are a citizen, you can register to vote even if your return to the U.S. is uncertain, or even if you have never lived in the U.S. You can take care of overseas registration online here.

Bottom line: Living outside of the U.S., either temporarily or permanently, does not affect your eligibility to vote.


“I’m attending college in a state that’s not where I grew up, and if I register to vote here then I’ll lose my financial aid.”

The Brennan Center for Justice says, “Where you register to vote will not affect any of your federal financial aid, including Pell Grants, Perkins and Stafford Loans, Academic Competitive Grants, SMART Grants, and other federal loans. It will also not affect whether you are considered your parents’ dependent for FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) purposes.”


There are a select number of private scholarships and grants that are designed exclusively for students with residence in a particular state. For the most part, they define “residence” as where your parents live, and/or where you attended high school—meaning that registering to vote outside the state won’t affect your scholarship eligibility. (For example, the Banato Family Filipino Education Fund requires that you reside in specific California counties while applying for the scholarship, but if you get the scholarship, you can use it at an out-of-state college and register to vote there without any problem.)

If you have a private, geographically-specific scholarship and you’re not sure whether registering to vote in your college town will impact your eligibility, check with the your scholarship’s administrator and/or your school’s financial aid office.


The website BestColleges.com offers more straightforward FAQs for student voting, including whether you should register at home or at school, how to vote while studying abroad, and so on.

Bottom line: Updating your voter registration as a student will not affect your financial aid, and in all but a few cases it will not affect your scholarships, either.


“If I register to vote, people will know where I live; anyone can access the voter registration rolls and show up at my door.”

By default, voter registration lists are publicly accessible. That’s how political campaigns are able to call you up to ask who you’re voting for, or to ring your doorbell to give you a piece of literature on their candidate.


If you don’t want the intrusion, leave your phone number off your voter registration form. (It’s optional.) And if you do get a call or a canvasser, I’d advise against ignoring them (they’ll just keep coming back until they can record an official response from you)—instead, answer the door or the phone, request that they take you off their list, and they will.

Having strangers try to talk to you about politics can be, at worst, an annoying interruption of your day. But for victims of domestic violence or stalking, having a publicly accessible address can be dangerous. Many states have enacted Address Confidentiality Programs for this exact purpose. The National Network to End Domestic Violence provides a guide to which confidentiality programs each state offers.


Bottom line: Registering to vote will add you to a publicly accessible database unless you take extra steps to register through your state’s Address Confidentiality Program.


“It’s too late for me to register to vote this year.”

Not if you act now. The earliest states’ registration deadlines are October 7 (that’s for Alaska and Rhode Island). Other states may give you even more time. See your state’s voter registration deadline on this easy-to-read chart.


Bottom line: There’s still time. Don’t wait.

**

Here’s the real truth: most of the reasons that people cite for why they can’t or won’t register to vote are just myths. And then of course, once they’re registered, people offer up a whole slew of reasons why they can’t actually cast a ballot. It probably won’t surprise you to hear that most of those reasons are false, as well. If you think you don’t have a way to get the polls, you can get a free ride there. If you think you can’t get time off work to vote, you probably can. If you can’t find postage to mail your absentee ballot, just stick it in the mailbox anyway.


Get registered. Go vote.

Leila Sales is the author of six young adult novels, including, most recently, IF YOU DON’T HAVE ANYTHING NICE TO SAY (Macmillan, 2018). Follow her @LeilaSalesBooks.