Most New Residents Must Re-register to Vote

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On November 2nd American voters will choose their next president. And Maricopa voters will decide the fate of their city (literally, as the State’s 25 year-old Expenditure Limitation Rule prevents the City from continuing operations after reaching $1.9 million in expenses without voters’ approval of a Permanent Base Adjustment).

Many new Maricopa residents may not be aware that they must re-register to vote if they have moved from another Arizona city or from another state. To be a registered voter in the state of Arizona, you must:

1. Be a United States citizen.
2. Be a resident of Arizona and your county for at least 29 days prior to the next election.
3. Be 18 years of age on or before the next general election.
4. Not have a felony or treason conviction on your record.
5. Not have been declared legally incapacitated.

If you meet these qualifications, you will want to register to vote in Arizona. To do so, you may go to www.servicearizona.com. However, this online registration requires that you have a digitalized signature on file from a past driver’s license or ID card.

If this is NOT the case, try this alternative site. Many of the state sites have page errors, but this one, sponsored by the nursing association, provides voter registration forms for every state. The one page form may be printed and mailed to the Arizona Secretary of State (the address is provided). You must specify a political party; you must also enter the last four digits of your social security number or your Indian census number. No specification of race or ethnic group is required. Your voter registration card will be mailed to you in 3-6 weeks–in plenty of time to get out and VOTE!

As Al Gore will tell you, every vote really does count, especially this November in Maricopa.