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You can’t vote if you aren’t registered

New York’s presidential primary election is April 28, and the deadline to register is April 3 — less than four weeks away. The last day to update your address on your voter registration is April 8.

If you’re not registered, not sure or you’ve moved recently, don’t put it off until the last minute.

If you’re a registered Democrat, you can have a say in a huge national decision next month. Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders or Tulsi Gabbard would be massively different leaders. (All the other Democratic presidential candidates have withdrawn, although they will be on the ballot. Also, there will be no Republican primary in New York because President Donald Trump was the only candidate to qualify for the ballot.)

One can register many different ways, but basically it comes down to getting your hands on a registration form, filling it out and submitting it to your county board of elections. You can do this in person at a Department of Motor Vehicles office (including the DMV office in Saranac Lake’s Harrietstown Town Hall, 39 Main St.), the county board of elections office (in Malone for Franklin County or Elizabethtown for Essex County) or a wide range of state agency offices. Your town office might be able to help, too, or you can call the state Board of Elections at 1-800-FOR-VOTE.

One can also easily download a registration form online; searching for “New York voter registration form” works.

Mail the form to one of the following, depending on which county you live in:

¯ Franklin County Board of Elections, 355 West Main St., Malone, NY 12953

¯ Essex County Board of Elections, 7551 Court St., P.O. Box 217, Elizabethtown, NY 12932.

Voting is a great privilege and duty, but it requires some preparation. Beyond registration, it requires familiarizing yourself with the candidates and their views.

The Enterprise is a great place to do that. If you’re not already a subscriber, you may have to decide if being informed is worth a small investment. We suggest you vote “yes” and choose to know.

Who can vote

To register to vote in New York, you must:

• Be a U.S. citizen.

• Be 18 years old by the date of the election.

• Have lived at your present address at least 30 days.

• Not be in prison or on parole for a felony conviction.

• Not be judged mentally incompetent by a court.

• Not claim the right to vote elsewhere.

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