Our 2018 midterm elections are coming up on Tuesday, November 6. The final day to register to vote is Wednesday, October 17. Here's everything you need to know to check your registration, register to vote, find your polling place, and more:
Want to register to vote? The deadline to register to vote is Wednesday, October 17. If you want to register to vote, you can do so online here: Register to Vote.
Not sure if you're registered to vote? You can find out if you are registered here: Check Your Voter Registration.
You can find your polling place here: Find Your Polling Place.
Do you need to bring ID to your polling place? What should you do if you arrive at your polling place and find out you're not on the list? You can find out what to do here.
What about early voting? If you're a Boston resident, you can vote early -- beginning Monday, October 22, through Friday, November 2. If you miss the early voting period, you can still vote in person on November 6. Here's a map of early voting locations in Boston.
Get informed. Now that you've done all that, if you'd like to be more informed about your choices at the ballot box, here are a few good starting points:
Mark your calendars. On Wednesday, October 17, at 7PM, WGBH News will be hosting a debate between Governor Charlie Baker and his challenger, Jay Gonzalez. You can tune in on 89.7FM, on WGBH-2, or online.
Want to get up to speed on the upcoming election during your commute? WGBH News' politics podcast, The Scrum, is a good place to start, and you can subscribe here. Recent episodes cover the potential impact of the Kavanaugh nomination on the midterms and ways that challenger Jay Gonzalez could triumph over popular incumbent governor Charlie Baker.
What about other state offices? You can stream the debate between Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey and her challenger Jay McMahon -- or just read a summary -- here. The candidates have sharp differences on policing, immigration, and guns. Treasurer? Take a look here for a brief but information-rich exchange between the Democratic and Republican candidates.
Get ballot-question ready: Question 1 asks voters if the state should place limits on the number of patients assigned to one nurse. What would it really mean? Get your questions answered here. Question 3 asks voters if they want to roll back protections for trans people in the state. Greater Boston hosted a discussion on the issue, which you can see here. Question 2 covers "corporate personhood" -- and all three will be covered in a downloadable guide produced by WGBH News. Check back next week, or subscribe to our new newsletter, The Thread, to get notified when it's ready.
Want live updates on these races as they come in? There are three easy ways to do that: one, download the WGBH News app (Apple, Android); two, visit us here at WGBH News, where we'll have live election updates; and three, tune in on election night to 89.7 FM.
Data reporting & data visualization contributed by Sophie Will.
