PENNSYLVANIA, USA — Oct. 21, 2024 is the last day to register to vote in Pennsylvania before the 2024 General Election.
Recent polling from FiveThirtyEight.com shows a virtual tie between former president Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris in Pennsylvania for their race for the white house.
Alison Dagnes, Professor of Political Science with Shippensburg University, says this election is expected to be one of the most exciting, albeit unusual, for her students.
“Normally, a major party candidate does not drop out, get replaced by the vice president and then start making a billion dollars in campaign donations, now they think that’s pretty normal,” Dagnes said.
That’s why she’s encouraging her students to register to vote, as well as all eligible Pennsylvanians.
“It is against federal law for a professor or teacher to offer extra credit to get their students to vote and so we don’t do that, we emphasize the importance of democracy, and we want students to go ahead and take the initiative,” Dagnes said.
According to the Pennsylvania Department of State, more than 9 million people registered to vote in the 2020 General Election.
As of Oct. 14, the state needs a few thousand more registrations to surpass that.
Dagnes says the disparity could be due to misinformation and access to registration resources.
“These obstacles are small, but they can be deterrents for those who say, ‘well it’s just not worth it,’ but to me those obstacles are important because this is how we know our vote is safe,” Dagnes said.
The gap could be filled by the time of the election.
“Once somebody is registered to vote then the next step is getting out to the polls on election day and that means making a plan to vote,” Dagnes said.
If voting in-person, you should make a plan to know your polling place ahead of time and how to get there.