SPRINGFIELD, Mo. In less than a week, thousands will head to the polls in Greene County and many of them are new voters. Around 10,000 people registered to vote in the last week of the voter registration period.
Greene County Clerk Shane Schoeller says many of the new voters are likely students who are attending school and want to get registered to vote here instead of having to travel back to their hometowns.
Social media is also partly to thank for high voter registration numbers. Both Facebook and Google used push notifications to encourage their users age 18 and up to register before the deadline.
If you are a new voter, or a voter new to Greene County, be sure to check your voter ID card for your polling place.
“If they’ve moved here recently, we just want to make sure they have updated their voter registration record because you have to vote at your residential address, that is Missouri state law,” said Schoeller. “So if you’ve done that it’s much easier to know where your new polling location is before you vote than the day of the election.”
One new registrant in Greene County is not a first-time voter, but he just moved to Springfield and updated his address at the Clerk’s office. Larry Smith said he’s a little nervous because he hasn’t received his voter ID card yet.
“They were trying to get them all out, but she didn’t indicate that they would get them all out, she said you would be in system,” Smith said. “I said what good does that do me without my ID card, she said — use your driver’s license. And then she proceeded to tell me where I would vote, but I have no guarantee that my name is gonna be in the system.”
Schoeller assures that any voters who do not receive their voter ID card by Election Day will still be able to vote. Just be sure to bring either your driver’s license or a utility bill with your address on it.
Today is the last day to request an absentee ballot by mail, so be sure to do that if you plan to vote absentee.
As for the social media push, now that the voter registration period is over, Facebook has launched what they call a “voting plan” for its users. The page lists all candidates, propositions and amendments you will see on the ballot for your county, along with an option to “explore the candidates” for each race. To view your election plan, visit: facebook.com/elections/yourplan
[Source:-KY3]
