Are You Registered?

Two weeks ago I wrote that political anxiety is easy to consume and that it is not the same thing as citizenship.¹ The argument still stands. This is the next ordinary step. Before we talk about plans and friends and watchfulness, we have to ask a question that sounds almost too small: Are you registered? Is the person in your house registered?

The Catechism does not treat the franchise as a hobby for people who enjoy politics. Co-responsibility for the common good makes it morally obligatory to exercise the right to vote.² A name that never reaches the roll cannot be called. A ballot that is never issued cannot be counted.

You cannot love the common good in the abstract and leave your name off the roll.

The duty is the same in every American jurisdiction. The calendars are not. Some states close registration weeks before Election Day. Others allow a later date, or even Election Day registration, if you know the local rule and arrive prepared.³ Friends reading this from another country cannot cast a ballot here, but they can pray, and they can refuse the lie that hidden suffering has no place in the life of a people.

For those who can vote in November, the work of this fortnight is simple. Find the last day you may register where you live. Vote.gov will send you to the official information for your own state or territory. Use that office. Do not assume Texas dates apply on the other side of a state line.

The Church has shown how this can be done without turning the narthex into a campaign office. In Virginia, Catholic leaders have encouraged the faithful to take seriously their responsibility to participate in political life, while the Virginia Catholic Conference has provided parishes with a practical model for nonpartisan voter-registration drives. Its guidance includes registration tables at parish exits, bulletin announcements, registration materials after Mass, reminders to vote, and help arranging rides to the polls.⁴

The particulars of another state’s ballot belong to that state. The method travels.

A table. A bulletin line. A registration form after Mass. A ride for the person who cannot drive. These do not require turning the parish into a campaign headquarters. They simply make it easier for a citizen to fulfill an obligation already his.

Texas readers should mark Monday, October 5. That is the last day to register for the November 3 election. If you have moved, legally changed your name, or never completed the application, check your status through the Texas Secretary of State and finish the work. For this election, October 5 may be either the date the application is received by the voter registrar or the postmark date on a mailed application. The Secretary of State recommends applying early and warns that mail deposited on a particular day may not necessarily receive that day’s postmark.⁵

Then ask one more person.

Your spouse. Your adult child. The young person who recently moved. The neighbor who assumes everything is probably fine. Ask the question: Are you registered? Help someone find the official site if necessary. One small act of citizenship can call forth another.

Not everyone will stand in a line. Some of the most faithful people I know can barely stand at all. Those who qualify for voting by mail or another lawful accommodation should make use of the options available where they live. But the homebound, the caregiver, the elderly, and those living with real suffering are not spectators of the common good.

They are given another instrument.

The ache of the morning, the long night, the hour no one sees can be offered for a truthful election and for a country that still knows how to tell the truth. In the study of redemptive suffering this is not a footnote. It is a share in the Cross given for the life of the nation.

Lord, receive what we cannot mend in our bodies and spend it on what may still be mended here. Guard the weak. Steady the people who will issue the ballots and the people who will watch them. Give those who remain at home a real part in the work. Make us truthful. Make the count true.

Are you registered? If you are not sure, this is the week to be sure.

Then ask one other person the same question.

Notes

1. Karen Early, “The Citizen’s Burden: Integrity, Participation, and the Duty That Remains,” Fides et Ratio, September 14, 2026.
2. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd ed. (Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1997), nos. 1913–1915, 2239–2240. See especially no. 2240, which identifies the exercise of the right to vote among the moral obligations arising from co-responsibility for the common good. See also United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship, with Introductory Note approved November 2023 (Washington, DC: USCCB, 2023).
3. U.S. Election Assistance Commission, “Register to Vote in U.S. Elections,” Vote.gov, accessed September 14, 2026. Registration deadlines and procedures vary by state and territory; some jurisdictions permit registration on Election Day.
4. Virginia Catholic Conference, How to Conduct Voter Registration Drives, updated 2025. The Conference’s guidance for nonpartisan parish registration efforts includes tables at parish exits, bulletin and pulpit announcements, voter-registration materials after Mass, reminders to vote, and assistance with transportation to polling places.
5. Texas Secretary of State, “Register to Vote in Texas,” VoteTexas.gov, accessed September 14, 2026; Texas Secretary of State, “Frequently Asked Questions,” VoteTexas.gov, accessed September 14, 2026. The registration deadline for the November 3, 2026 election is October 5, 2026. The deadline may be satisfied by the applicable postmark date or by receipt of the application in the voter registrar’s office.