How to Make Your Vote as Easy as Possible: An Online Guide

Voting season is upon us, and thanks to the incredible efforts of progressive organizations and inspired activists, election 2008 has some dazzling online innovations to make voting as simple as possible -- from comprehensive one-stop shop resources like the League of Women Voters' Vote411.org site, to the Moveon.org- and Catalist.us-sponsored VotePoke.org tool that helps you check your registration status, to the Twitter Vote Report, an easy way for voters to use their cell phones to report on problems that they face, be they long lines, voter ID issues or problems with student voting.

Here is a list of resources and tips for how to use the best online tools to make voting as simple as possible and how you can protect your vote:

1. Early voting

For early voting, which is an option in 31 states, people must go to their county offices or an early voting center. EarlyVoting.net tells you whether your state allows early voting and if there are restrictions. Some states don't allow it unless you are ill, can't leave work, etc. The bottom of the chart has specifics for each state. GoVote.org helps find your polling place location for both early voting and Election Day voting, based on your ZIP code and address.

You should call your county's election office to find out the hours for early voting and whether your location will be open this weekend. Some states are expanding hours. This link on the OverseasVoteFoundation site is a national directory of county election offices, phone numbers and other contact information. Its site is absolutely the best for overseas voting questions.

2. Find out where your polling place is.

Early voting is generally at a county office building. For Election Day, you have to go to polling places identified by precinct number. There are a lot of online tools to find polling place locations, but some have other useful features. The League of Women Voters' Vote411.org site has a well-designed poll locator tool. When you get to the page where you enter the street address, you can also download a sample ballot as a PDF file and check your voter registration status. Also, the 866-MY-VOTE1 hot line lets people enter their home phone number for the address where they are registered and it spits out the poll location.

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Google Maps also has a tool in conjunction with the League of Women Voters that retrieves a map of your polling place, prints directions, and has contact information for local election officials. GoVote has polling place information that is especially useful for student voters and can be accessed by text messaging. If you use this tool and no match comes up, you will be referred to the 866-OUR-VOTE hotline manned by lawyers.

3. Check your registration status.

Every state except North Dakota requires that voters register before voting. A handful of states (Idaho, Iowa, Maine, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Wisconsin and Wyoming) will let people register on Election Day or during early voting. Connecticut allows people to register on Election Day but only to vote for president.

For the rest of us, registration for the 2008 presidential campaign is mostly closed. One issue this year that will affect some voters is whether their voter registration records are current. Some may be missing for a variety of reasons. Most people won't experience this, but it's smart to check if your registration is in the system. At the same time, you can see what ID you'll need.

Not all states have online voter registration verification tools. But VotePoke.org has a tool (sponsored by MoveOn.org and Catalist.us) to check registration status. If it's inconclusive, try state-specific tools on LongDistanceVoter.org, or as a last resort, call your county election official to verify your registration.