A Complete Guide on How to Vote

graphic by nina bridges

It’s primary season and we at Jerk are giving you your daily reminder that voting is so important! If you’ve decided you’re not going to vote because you don’t know how don’t feel bad. It’s complicated, a little hard to understand and lowkey seems like a lot of paperwork. Luckily, Jerk has all the information you need to be able to participate in the democratic process for this election. Whether you decide to vote in Syracuse or in your hometown, our guide has everything you need to know about how to participate in democracy. 

1. Register

   Regardless of whether you’re voting in person or by absentee ballot, you have to be registered first. Each state has different guidelines for how this is done, so you may already be registered through other forms of identification like your driver’s license. If you’re not sure if you’re registered, this link will have you select your home state and redirect you to whichever state website you need to check.

   Not registered to vote? No problem! If you need to register, go to Vote.gov, select your state, and the site will tell you if you’re able to register online, in person or by mail. If you can register online, it will give you the link to your state’s voter registration site. 38 states accept online voter registration, so chances are you won’t even have to leave your house to register. Just an F.Y.I., if you’re not registered, the deadline to do so could be up to a month before the election day, so don’t procrastinate on this part.

   If you plan on voting in person at Syracuse, here’s the link for New York’s online voter registration system.

2. Get your absentee ballot or find your polling place

   In order to vote in your hometown while you’re away at college, you need to request an absentee ballot, which you can do through your state’s election office website. This link will take you to the correct state site, but you’ll have to look for the section about absentee ballots. Side note - state websites can be really ugly and hard to use, so doing command F for absentee is usually the easiest way to find it. Most often, you’ll need to print the application form, fill it out, and then mail or fax it. If you’re registered as an independent voter you’ll need to select which party’s ballot you want on the form. Once you request your ballot, there’s usually a way to track its status on the same website as the forms. After you get it, bubble in your vote, sign the affidavit that comes with it and put it back in the mail.

   To vote in Syracuse, all you need to do is find your polling place and show up on Apr. 28, the New York state's primary date. There are a few different polling places for SU students, but if you live on Main Campus you’ll most likely be voting in Huntington Hall and if you live on South you’ll probably vote at Drumlins. For those of you who’ve escaped the housing requirement and live off-campus, check your polling place here (we’re in Onondaga county). The student association usually emails information about campus polling places as well

3. Get informed!

   It literally takes five minutes to learn about the candidates and their platforms. You don’t even need to read the news every day or watch every single debate to be informed enough to vote, (but if you do good for you). Here are some of the best websites to get a quick view of the candidates and where they stand on the issues:

   • The New York Times 2020 election page - The New York Times gives some quick bullets about each candidate and their signature issues and in-depth candidate profiles if you want more info.

   • ISideWith.com - If you’re more of a Buzzfeed quiz person, take their quiz to find out which candidate’s platform aligns the most with your beliefs.

   • Aljazeera.com - This site is known for being very neutral and unbiased while having a good amount of information about each candidate.

4. Get your ass to the polls or the post office

   You did all this work to be ready to vote, now the only thing left to do is to get yourself to the polls or put your absentee ballot in the mail. Please, please, please go vote if you can. It’s the easiest way to represent your political opinions in the government and have a say about what happens in our shit show of a country. We’ll see you at the polls!