It’s time to exercise your right to vote—early voting is now underway.

It’s election day! OK, not the actual Election Day, which this year is Nov. 5, hence why I, Pam Marino, am using lowercase “e” and lowercase “d.” Semantics aside, today is the first day that Monterey County Elections opened early voting at its office in Salinas, so it is in effect the first day of voting.

Although, if you are a registered voter in Monterey County, you may have already received your official mail-in ballot. (Mine arrived on Saturday, Oct. 5.)

In effect, every day is election day, right up until 8pm Tuesday, Nov. 5.

Your voting booth may be your kitchen table and the ballot box could be your mailbox, a USPS mailbox or one of the 21 Monterey County Elections dropboxes located throughout the county.

You can also vote early in person from 8am-5pm, Monday through Friday, at the Monterey County Elections Office at 1441 Schilling Place, Salinas.

And starting Tuesday, Oct. 22, you can vote early at one of 10 pop-up voting locations around the county.

To make it easier for you, the Weekly’s interactive Google map shows all the dropbox and voting locations in the county, with dates, addresses and details of what services are available. 

If you already voted, thank you. You took one of the most important steps you can take for the good of democracy. As Editor Sara Rubin points out in this week’s Spin column, voting is “the most elemental form of participation.”

The more people register and vote, the more power the people have to make decisions about how local, state and national governments operate. It keeps democracy strong and vibrant.

With as many voting options as there are now, it’s hard to argue there isn’t enough time to vote, or time to figure out who or what to vote for. The argument that there isn’t enough information also doesn’t work. It’s not hard to find credible information on candidates and ballot measures. (Watch out for the Weekly’s endorsement guide arriving on Thursday, Oct. 10.)

Opting out because you don’t like the candidates is not an ethical choice, argues Scott Davidson, a professor of philosophy at West Virginia University. Dislike of candidates “is not a sufficient reason for abstaining,” he writes in his piece, “Why there really is no ethical reason not to vote.”

To assume the choices are always between good and bad is the wrong assumption, he says. “Voters often have to choose between two good or two bad options.” 

Besides, he points out, there are important state and local contests on the ballot that need attention. And since races can be very close, each vote can be meaningful.

What if you’re not registered to vote? It’s an easy online process through the California Secretary of State. You can register online up until 11:59pm Monday, Oct. 21. (You can also check your registration status at that site.) Paper voter registration applications, available at many locations like libraries, post offices and other public buildings, can be postmarked up until Oct. 21. 

If you miss the registration deadline, you can always go to a polling place or other voting location to register and fill out a provisional ballot.

So get out there and celebrate your right to vote on any election day you choose, but make sure to do so by the Nov. 5 deadline.

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