Last Day to Register to Vote in California

You've probably been busy lately, what with Giants games to root for and Halloween costumes to brainstorm and whatnot, so this may have fallen off your radar screen. But today is the deadline for registering to vote in the November 2nd general election in California. Fear not! If you haven't registered yet, or are unsure of your status, here's what to do.

First, go to this website, where you can find out if you've registered. If it turns out you haven't, you have a few options. First, ask yourself these questions.

• Am I 18 or older?
• Am I a US citizen?
• Am I a California resident?
• Am I definitely not in prison or on parole?
• Am I mentally competent?

If you answered 5 yeses, then kudos -- you're eligible. Next, you can swing by your local library, DMV, post office, or other government office and pick up a voter registration card. Or you can download one here, print it out, and mail it in. No, your calendar's not broken -- it's 2010, but you still can't register to vote online. The good news is that your registration card just needs to be postmarked by today, not received. So get it in the mail today and you should be OK. But don't pat yourself on the back just yet -- you still have a 189-page voter guide to read up on, a polling place to locate, and two more weeks of campaign ads to ignore.