If You Live in One of These 19 States, Today Is Your Last Day to Register to Vote

The organization WhenWeAllVote — co-chaired by celebrities like Michelle Obama and Janelle Monáe — wants you to register to vote today if you live in one of the following 19 states:

Several of these states are red states vulnerable to a Democratic uprising in November, like Texas, where Democrat Beto O’Rourke of El Paso is neck-and-neck with former presidential candidate Ted Cruz, running in his first re-election battle. The RealClearPolitics polling average shows Cruz leading O’Rourke by an average of just six points in a state President Trump won by nearly ten points.

And in Kentucky, Republican Andy Barr is running to keep the seat he has held since 2013 in a tight race with former Marine Corps pilot Amy McGrath. The New York Times has rated that race as one of the most competitive in the country, and one Democrats will likely have to win if they want to win back a majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Another state whose voter registration deadline is today is Tennessee, where former two-term Democratic governor Phil Bredesen is running in a close race with Republican Marsha Blackburn. Bredesen’s chances appeared in doubt when several Democratic super PACs following his statement supporting Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court confirmation. However, following Taylor Swift’s endorsement of Bredesen in an Instagram post, thousands of new Tennessee voters — presumably Swift fans — registered to vote.

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Perhaps the biggest statewide race anywhere in the country is the Georgia gubernatorial election, in which Democrat Stacey Abrams and Republican Brian Kemp — Georgia’s current Secretary of State — are facing off for the open seat vacated by term-limited governor Nathan Deal. Abrams, who could potentially be America’s first black female governor, is polling within half a point of Kemp according to RealClearPolitics.

Voters in the critical purple state of Ohio have until the end of Tuesday to register, and will be electing both a new governor, as well as deciding whether or not to re-elect Senator Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) or elect his Republican opponent Jim Renacci. Brown is ahead of Renacci by a double-digit margin, though the gubernatorial election between Democrat Richard Cordray — the former director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — and Republican Attorney General Mike DeWine, is much closer, with Cordray ahead of DeWine by just three points.

In both Georgia and Ohio, it’s particularly important for people to not only register, but to check their registrations, with one candidate even using his position to purge thousands of voters from the rolls. Fast Company reported that Kemp has purged roughly one in ten Georgia voters from the rolls, using the justification that some voters had moved out of state or out of their respective Congressional district and should be made to re-register. However, investigative journalist Greg Palast found that many of the voters who were purged never moved out of Georgia, or even out of their districts.

Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted, in the meantime, won a Supreme Court case in June in which his was upheld. Husted argued that voters should be removed from the rolls if they fail to vote in consecutive elections. With his Supreme Court victory, Husted’s voter purges could be repeated across the country.

You can check your registration and find out how to register by going to WhenWeAllVote’s website.