This post comes as a public service to our patients who are 18 years old and older who have told us all summer long that they are not yet registered to vote.
You are 18 years old. This is YOUR time now! You have a right to your opinion and it is your right AND responsibility as an American citizen to vote. Maybe you have intense interests on many issues. Maybe you have no interest at all. Maybe you have some interest but politics completely turns you off. In any event, every election affects your life directly and engaging in your adult responsibility to vote is the American thing to do.
It is very easy to do but you must be registered within 30 days of an election, so time is short for this upcoming election. You can google (I know you can!) “register to vote in PA” or you can go to this site, download the pdf file, fill out the form, and MAIL the form (it’s hard to believe that in the second decade of the 21st century you will still need a stamp for this- your parents will have one) by physically putting it in a mailbox. Within 4 weeks, you should have your registration information mailed to you.
If you are going to college and/or living away from your registered voting location, you will need an absentee ballot. The application (yes, you have to fill it out and mail that one too- don’t forget the stamp!) is available at the same site or here.
One last thought: It is now your world to fix. If you don’t vote, you can’t complain about how it all turns out.