We must make our voices heard and vote in the 2024 election

Important voting resources for physicians

The 2024 election is one of the most consequential elections in recent history, and as physicians, we have a responsibility to vote.

The first step to voting is to register to vote and to check your voter registration status.

Tuesday was National Voter Registration Day — the perfect reminder to do this — and you can register to vote here: www.vote.gov/register.

Physicians have historically voted at lower rates than other professions. We must change that.

We must challenge and empower ourselves, every member of our health care team, including all students and trainees, and each of our patients who is eligible to vote to cast our ballots in this election to ensure that our voices are heard.

In particular, the transient nature of clinical training can present many barriers that make voting challenging, often involving frequent moves, changes in state residency and long hours.

Academic faculty and clinical program leadership must ensure that all medical and other health professions students, interns, residents and fellows are registered to vote at their current address, know the voting laws of their current state and are given the time off to vote because every vote counts and every vote is critical in this election. Campus Vote Project has created state voting guides with information on voting requirements by state that can be accessed here: www.campusvoteproject.org.

Health care is on the ballot this year, and we cannot miss our opportunity to vote.

The outcomes of this election will directly influence access to reproductive health care; access to affordable medicines, including Medicare’s ability to continue negotiating prescription drug prices; public health funding and infrastructure; the future of the Affordable Care Act, including costs of monthly ACA health insurance premiums; Medicaid expansion; the ability to address health effects of climate change; and access to and funding for other critical health services, including primary and behavioral health care and rural health services.

Ensuring that you are registered to vote and have all the resources needed to cast your ballot is key to making your voice heard at the ballot box.

By going to www.vote.gov/register, you can check your voter registration status; update any changes to your voter registration, including address and name changes; and register to vote. This is particularly important because some states remove names from voter registration lists due to voter inactivity or due to erroneous information, so you must ensure you are still registered to vote at your current address. Of note, not all states allow online voter registration, but this link will provide you with the information you need to register to vote in your state. You can also use this link to access information on your state’s voter registration deadlines, some of which are as early as the beginning of October.

This week is the ideal time to ensure that you are familiar with any new state voting laws, such as the requirement to show approved photo ID when voting, significant changes to mail-in voting requirements and procedures, and to confirm the dates, times and locations of early voting, election day voting and ballot drop boxes.

Many states across the country have made changes to their voting laws. For example, in North Carolina, a specific list of approved photo IDs are now required to vote, mail-in ballots require two adult witnesses or a single notary public to be present when you are marking your ballot when voting by mail, and mailed absentee ballots must be received by the time polls close on election day with no grace period for ballots delayed in the mail. Other states have reduced the number of ballot drop boxes available, and voters may now have to travel significant distances to their closest ballot drop box. It is, therefore, essential to know your state’s current voting requirements, deadlines and polling locations to avoid last-minute surprises and the chance you may not be allowed to vote or that your vote may not be counted when you do try to vote.

The best resource to learn about your state’s voting requirements is your state board of elections website, which can be accessed at www.usa.gov/state-election-office. Sample ballots can also be accessed here, and it is critical to know what your sample ballot looks like so that you are prepared to fill out your entire ballot.

Although the presidential candidates are at the top of the ticket, other federal, state and local elections are just as important in shaping health policy. In this election, we will elect members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, state governors, state attorneys general, state secretaries of state, members of state legislatures, state supreme court justices, mayors, city and town council members, county commissioners, other state and locally elected officials, and we will decide whether to support or oppose state constitutional amendments, local funding and bond proposals and other ballot measures. More information on the specific candidates and the issues that you will need to vote on in the 2024 election can be accessed by entering your address at the following link: www.ballotpedia.org/Sample_Ballot_Lookup.

Most importantly, now is the time to make your plan to vote.

Election day is on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, but there are many opportunities to vote before this deadline, and for clinicians, there are many advantages to voting early due to busy and unpredictable work schedules.

Voting early in person in states where this is an option is a great way to cast your ballot. You can also vote in person on election day or plan to mail in your ballot, but your ballot must be received by your state’s deadline if you are mailing it.

If you choose to vote early in person, you can look up your early voting sites through your state board of elections website: www.usa.gov/state-election-office.

If you plan to mail in your ballot, you can request your mail-in ballot and review important deadlines for requesting and returning your mail-in ballot and access other important resources here: www.vote.org/absentee-ballot.

If you plan to vote in person on election day, you can look up your election-day polling location here: www.vote.org/polling-place-locator.

Regardless of how you plan to vote, you must take the time now to decide what day and time you will vote, so that you can request time off from work if needed or plan to vote at a time when you are not scheduled to work.

It is also important to note that even if you plan to vote by mail, you should still block off time to request your mail-in ballot and to complete and return your mail-in ballot because some states require several time-consuming steps to complete and return a mail-in ballot, lines at post offices can be long if you need to mail your ballot from a post office and ballot drop boxes can be far from where you live.

As we prepare ourselves to vote in this election, we should also take the opportunity to speak with our patients about the importance of voting and provide those who are eligible to vote with the resources needed to vote.

Vot-ER and Asian & Pacific Islander American Vote (APIA Vote) are two nonpartisan organizations that provide resources to best support our patients to vote. Vot-ER provides clinicians with free badges with QR codes that can be used to register our patients to vote, and these badges can be requested here: www.vot-er.org/badge. For our Asian American patients with limited English proficiency, APIA Vote provides in-language voter information resources: www.apiavote.org/how-to-vote/in-language.

As physicians, we must all vote in this election and support and empower all those around us who are eligible to vote to cast their ballots in this election because the health of our communities and our nation depend on it, and when we have a healthy democracy, we will have a healthier nation.

In summary, to make your vote count, you must:

1. Register to vote/check your voter registration status.
2. Decide how you will vote (early in person, absentee by mail or in person on Election Day).
3. Plan the date, time and location where you will vote.
4. Request time off to vote or vote on a scheduled day off.
5. Know your state laws and make sure you have everything required to vote in your state (eg, accepted forms of ID, witnesses, etc.).
6. View your sample ballot in advance so that you are prepared to fill out your entire ballot.

My detailed voting plan:

1. I will go to www.vote.gov/register to check my voter registration status, change my address or name or register to vote on this day ________ at this time ________.
2. I have confirmed that I am registered to vote at my current address: ___Yes ___No
3. I will check my state’s board of elections website at www.usa.gov/state-election-office and my state’s voting guide at www.campusvoteproject.org on this day ________ at this time ________ to check my state’s voter registration deadlines, deadlines for requesting mail-in ballots, rules for returning mail-in ballots, dates, times and locations for early voting in-person, times and locations for election day in-person voting, important state voting laws and sample ballots.
4. My state requires a photo ID to vote: ___Yes ___No
   • If Yes, I have an accepted form of ID: ___Yes ___No ___N/A
   • If No, I will acquire an accepted ID on this date ________, at this time ________ and at this location ________.
5. I will go to www.ballotpedia.org/Sample_Ballot_Lookup to check which candidates and issues are on my ballot on this day ________, at this time ________ so that I will be ready to fill out my entire ballot.
6. I will plan to vote: ___early in person ___absentee by mail ___on Election Day in person
   • If I am voting early in person, I will vote on this day ________ at this time ________ and at this location ________.
     • I have transportation to this location, will have an accepted form of identification with me if IDs are required and have requested time off to vote at this time, or this is my day off: ___Yes ___No
   • If I am voting by absentee mail-in ballot, I will go to www.vote.org/absentee-ballot to check my state’s mail-in voting requirements, and I will request my mail-in ballot on this day ________. I will plan to complete my ballot on this day ________, at this time ________. I will return my mail-in ballot on this day ________, at this time ________ and I will plan to return my mail-in ballot using the following method: ________.
     • If witnesses are required for mail-in ballots, I have identified who I will have present when marking my ballot and have confirmed that they are available to serve as witnesses at that time: ___Yes ___No ___N/A
     • If additional documents, such as photocopies of accepted forms of ID, are required to submit with mail-in ballots, these documents are ready to be mailed with my ballot: ___Yes ___No ___N/A
   • If I am voting on Election Day in person, I will vote on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, at this time ________ and at this location ________ (Election Day polling location can be accessed at www.vote.org/polling-place-locator).
     • I have transportation to this location, will have an accepted form of identification with me if IDs are required and have requested time off to vote at this time, or this is my day off: ___Yes ___No