Editorial: Registered to vote? Today's the day

This is your last chance.

If you want to vote in the November general election, Monday is the last day to register.

Pennsylvania is not one of the handful of states that allow you to just decide that you want to participate in your government with five minutes to spare before the polls close on the first Tuesday in November. No, the Keystone State demands you plan ahead.

In Pennsylvania, you have to sign up. Today is the deadline.

Maybe you already did. You might have registered and not even remember. Pennsylvania has the almost effortless process of registration as part of obtaining or renewing your driver’s license. You may have never exercised that electoral muscle, so perhaps you don’t recall your status.

Well, today is the day to check it out — and the last time you can do anything about it before the Nov. 3 election.

A visit to votespa.com can help you figure out your registration status. If you haven’t registered, you can rectify that. You can find your polling place. If you aren’t going to be able to get to the polls — or are reluctant to try during the coronavirus pandemic — you can request a mail-in ballot at the same website until Oct. 27. And you can track where that ballot is.

It’s a one-stop shop for every Pennsylvania voter’s election questions. And it’s important that you use it.

For too many years, too many people have let elections be an item on a busy checklist. Casting a ballot was prioritized somewhere after picking up milk and bread and maybe before cleaning the basement and washing the windows. Maybe.

Elections are too important for that. They need to be more than something we do if we remember. They have to be the purpose we seek out. They need to be the reason we pick up the mail or the reason we get in the car.

Everyone who can vote should vote.

If you can vote and haven’t registered, there is no excuse for not doing it. And there’s no time like the present because this is your last chance before this election.