New Yorkers: You Only Have Until Oct. 14 to Register to Vote

NEW YORK, NY — If you've been holding off on registering to vote in quite possibly the craziest presidential election of your lifetime, you only have a few more days left. The New York state deadline for registering to vote is this Friday, Oct. 14 for all three ways: online, by mail or in-person.

Friday is also, strangely, the last day to change your party affiliation for the 2017 election, which in NYC will decide the city's next mayor, public advocate, controller, etc. (To do so, just follow the same steps for registering anew — laid out below — with a check mark next to your newly preferred party.)

If you forget whether you're registered or not — maybe you've sat out a few cycles but can't afford to ignore this one — you can check here on the New York State Voter Registration Search. You can also call 1-866-868-3692 if you prefer to hear whether you're registered. Once you look yourself up, you'll also see a link to the Poll Locator Search so you know where to head on Nov. 8.

If you know you're not registered, you better get on that.

The first way to register to vote is by doing so online. Voting registration is done through the Department of Motor Vehicles, so you can head here to sign up for an account on dmv.ny.gov. In order to do so, you'll need a New York driver's license, permit or non-driver identification card, your zip code and the last four digits of your social security number. Once you have your DMV account, or if you already had one, sign in and choose "Register to Vote" and fill out the voter registration form. It's automatically forwarded to the Board of Elections and you should be all set. New York City residents can also register to vote through LinkNYC stations located around the city. The homepage will link you directly to the DMV registration site.

You can also register by mail. First, you'll need to head to the Board of Elections website right here. Then you'll want to print out the voter registration form. The form is available in English or Spanish. For those in New York City, it's available in 16 different languages here. Once it's filled out, you can stick it in an envelope and mail it to your county Board of Elections. To find the address, just click here. Remember, if you're registering by mail, the letter must be postmarked by Oct. 14 and it must arrive to the Board of Elections no later than Oct. 19.

The third and final way to register to vote is to do so in person. You can register at your local Board of Elections on any business day from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Again, the link to find your local Board of Elections is here. As a special bonus, New York City residents can head to election registration pop-up booths across the city on Oct. 13 and Oct. 15 (yes, that gives you one bonus day if you forgot to do it by Friday). The list of local spots where you can sign up on those two days is here. Most of the locations are held in public schools. Those locations will be open on Oct. 13 from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. and on Oct. 15 from 1 p.m. to 9 p.m.

In a related note, if you want to notify the state of a change of address, you'll need to get that to the Board of Elections by Oct. 19. The process is done with the same form you use to register to vote, and can be done online or sent to the same location.

Also, the requirements to register to vote are as follows:

• be a United States citizen;
• be 18 years old by Dec. 31 of the year in which you file the form (note: you must be 18 years old by the date of the general, primary or other election in which you want to vote);
• live at your present address at least 30 days before an election;
• not be in prison or on parole for a felony conviction and;
• not be adjudged mentally incompetent by a court;
• not claim the right to vote elsewhere

If you need more information on who to vote for, try clicking around on the internet. It's been pretty widely covered.

Photo by QuesterMark/Flickr