Read This: Checking Your Voter Registration Right Now Is Essential!

You would think that it would be enough to register to vote. But it’s not. In 2016, my neighbor, Jim, a noted election law and voting rights lawyer in Alabama, who had been involved in just about every significant election case in the state for decades, showed up at his polling place to vote. He learned when he arrived, that he was on the inactive voter list. In order to vote, he had to update his registration. That takes time—and patience when, as far as you know, you’re all set. Fortunately, Jim wasn’t a dad who had to hurry off because he was on the way to drop off his kids at school. He wasn’t a single Mom who couldn’t afford to miss an hour of work. Had he been, he might have been shut out from voting in the election. Jim was able to stick it out, reregister, and vote successfully. Others were deprived of their right to vote in that election.

Once you’ve been moved to inactive status, you can be purged from the rolls entirely if you don’t vote in the next set number of elections. In other words, being moved to inactive status puts you on track to be purged from the voter rolls. The Supreme Court approved of measures designed to “prune” supposedly inactive voters off of the rolls in a 2018 Ohio case, Husted v. A. Phillip Randolph Institute. Inactive voters can still vote, but they have to jump through the extra hoops of voting a provisional ballot, in some places you have to show up by the end of the week with additional proof of your status, which frequently results in votes not being counted. And as you might expect, the problems tend to be most acute in states that have measures in place to suppress

So smart voters have to know how to stay registered.

There is a step you can take in advance of voting in federal elections to make sure your registration status is active. And it’s easy. You can go online and check your registration status. Most states have a website, and many have their own apps. There are also sites you can use, like vote.gov or IWillVote.com, that let voters nationwide check their status. And here’s the best part, the National Motor Voter Act says you can’t be removed from the voter rolls closer than 90 days out from the election. Were past that point now, so, if you check your status and you’re an active voter, your state can’t change that before the election. Take a screenshot, keep it handy, and if there are any issues, you’ve got proof that you’re an active voter. If there’s any question at the polls, you’ve got documentation.

Getting registered is only the first step. It’s equally important to stay registered and to make sure you protect your right to vote. Now you know how to do it. Please, share this with everyone you know. It’s too important not to.

We’re in this together,

Joyce