Tuesday is the deadline to register to vote. If that's news to you, well, then consider this a reminder.
But you're probably not going to get off that easily from here on out.
In the final weeks before the Nov. 7 election, a horde of volunteers and interest groups will do everything possible to reverse pollsters' predictions that Oregon most likely will have a low voter turnout this fall.
The secretary of state has teamed with a Portland radio station to send text-message reminders to the under-30 crowd. College students and other Generation Y volunteers are out crawling coffee shops and pubs, handing out registration cards and assuring people that every vote counts.
On the other end of the spectrum, AARP is telling its folks: "Don't Vote." (Just kidding.) The footnote is: Don't vote until you know the issues.
Registering to vote -- even with Tuesday's deadline looming -- remains relatively easy.
Federal law requires everyone registering to provide identifying information, such as a current driver's license or identification card or the last four digits of your Social Security number.
If you want to register by mail, you must provide a photocopy of one of the following: photo ID, pay stub, utility bill, bank statement, a government document, or proof of eligibility under the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act or the Voting Accessibility for the Elderly and Handicapped Act.
Actually filling out a ballot and turning it in apparently is more difficult than registering for some people.
Only 39 percent of Oregon's registered voters cast ballots in the May primary, with barely 25 percent of voters in their 20s and 30s participating. That's one reason why Secretary of State Bill Bradbury jumped at a proposal from pop radio station Z100 to offer cell phone text messages reminding subscribers not only to register but also to turn in their ballots.
"I have an 18-year-old son and he's in college. The only way I can talk to him is with a text message," says Phil Bernstein, the Z100 account executive who pitched the idea.
To sign up, send the word "vote" on your cell phone to the number 81530. Cell carrier rates do apply on text messages. As of Friday, 118 wannabe voters had signed up for the service in the first week. The nonprofit Bus Project and the Oregon Student Association are also using a full-court press to motivate younger voters.
Courtney Sproule, a spokeswoman for the student association, says not all young Oregonians are apathetic.
"Students are paying more than they have for tuition and at the same time they're attending underfunded universities," Sproule says. "They realize if they build their power now by voting, they'll go into the next (legislative) session stronger."
Though the over-50 crowd is more likely to vote, AARP Oregon isn't taking anything for granted.
Nationally, AARP has launched its "Don't Vote" campaign. Humorous commercials, which can be viewed at www.dontvote.com, ask Americans to educate themselves on the issues that matter most to them, such as health care and Social Security.
In Oregon, AARP is preparing to launch an ad blitz urging its nearly half-million members to endorse Measure 44, which expands Oregon's prescription drug program. AARP also advises "no" votes on Measure 41, a state income tax cut, and Measure 48, a state spending cap.
"A huge percentage of our members are registered," says Jerry Cohen, state director of AARP Oregon. "But it doesn't hurt to remind them."
David Crowe, founder and executive director of Restore America, worries that congressional scandals in Washington and other disappointments will cause evangelical Christians to sit out this election. So Crowe's Lake Oswego-based organization is doing everything it can to make sure that doesn't happen.
Crowe, whose network includes an e-mail list of 4,000 people and close to 1,000 pastors and churches in Oregon, recently sent an e-mail urging Christians to register and vote. And over the next three Sundays, evangelical Christians in Oregon will be advised to vote their values.
"Political parties are never going to fully satisfy our conservative values," he says, "but that's not a reason not to vote."
