Your vote counts

This is a long(ish) message. The TL:DR version is this: if you are a registered voter, please, VOTE!

For registered voters in Lebanon County

If you have registered to vote, please make sure to cast your vote.

Mail-in voters: If you have applied for a mail-in ballot prior to close of business on October 29, then you can check the status of your ballot on the PA Department of State’s website at https://www.pavoterservices.pa.gov/pages/ballottracking.aspx.

Assuming you’ve mailed your ballot back in, if any of the dates – Application Received, Application Processed, Ballot Mailed On, or Ballot Received – are blank, you should call the Lebanon County Elections Office at 717-228-4428 between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m.. They can advise you on what steps to take.

If you haven’t mailed your ballot back yet, what are you waiting for?!? At this point, I would recommend you return it in person. There are two options for doing so. One is the mail-in ballot drive-up dropoff located in the courthouse parking lot. The other is to deliver it directly to the elections office on the second floor of the Lebanon County Courthouse, 400 S. 8th Street, Lebanon, PA 17042. These options are available on weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. You can also use them for returning mail-in ballots on Election Day, November 5, from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.

If you’re registered to vote, make sure you know where your polling location is. If you’re unsure, you can call the elections office or use their online tool at https://www.lebanoncountypa.gov/ – go to the Services menu and under Voter Registration click the Locate My Polling Location link. Polls are open from 7:00 am until 8:00 pm on Tuesday, November 5.

For unregistered voters

It’s too late at this point to register to vote in this election, but if you’re a US citizen you can still register to vote in the future.

The election next week is the most important one of our lifetime. But the next most important one happens in the spring of 2025. And the next most important one after that happens in November of 2025.

The point I’m trying to make is that every election matters. And, at the local level, we’ve seen positions decided by a handful of votes. So please, go to the Department of State website, visit the Lebanon County elections office, or stop by the Lebanon Democratic Committee headquarters and we’ll help you get registered to vote.

About voting and why it matters

People who tell you that your vote doesn’t count or that voting doesn’t matter don’t have your best interests at heart.

One of the hallmarks of our democracy is the right, and responsibility, to vote. Everyone in the United States lives in the most inclusive time in our country’s history in terms of voting. In fact, there are people alive today who were around before the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was passed, finally giving groups like Black women the right to vote. While there are still some instances of disenfranchisement – for instance, in some places convicted felons or people who are incarcerated can’t vote – for most Americans voting is an option. (Fortunately for Donald Trump, felons convicted in New York only lose their right to vote while they are actually incarcerated.)

I’ll also do something rare in politics – give credit to the other side. Act 77 of 2019, which made mail-in voting an option for all registered voters in Pennsylvania, was passed while the Pennsylvania legislature was controlled by the Republicans. Tom Wolf signed it into law, and since then it has served to make voting more accessible for all voters, especially during the COVID pandemic.

While there is a real discussion we need to have about the influence of money on politics in the US, the one thing that money can’t buy is your vote. It’s yours, and yours alone. So get yourself informed and then get yourself to the ballot box. Make your voice heard. In 2016, the Presidential election results were not what I’d hoped for. But I knew my friends and neighbors who worked the polls in my community, and that the same thing was happening across the country. I was disappointed in the outcome but accepted it, knowing that the process had worked as intended and that the rare instances of election fraud were discovered and prosecuted. In 2020, I was much happier about the results, but knew once again that the election was fair and free, and the results were valid. The same will be true this year, regardless of the outcome.

So, one more time, in case the signal didn’t make it through the noise: VOTE.

Sincerely,

Matt Duvall
Chair, Lebanon County Democratic Committee