The deadline to register to vote in the Nov. 3 presi­dential election is less than a week away on Monday, Oct. 5, and early voting will get underway a week after­wards.

Although the presiden­tial election is at the top of the ballot, Princeton voters actually will participate in three separate elections. All three, thankfully, are listed on the same ballot.

Listings from the Gen­eral Election are to be com­bined with races for Princ­eton city council and mayor, and Princeton Independent School District school board.

Early voting for all three elections starts Oct. 13 and runs through Oct. 30.

Because Texas does not offer voter registration on­line, registration requires that a completed form be re­turned to the voter registrar, in this case the Collin Coun­ty Elections Administrator.

Registration forms, how­ever, can be downloaded the Texas Secretary of State’s website, sos.state. tx.us. Competed forms must be mailed to Collin County Elections Adminis­trator, 2000 Redbud Blvd., Suite 102, McKinney, Texas 75069.

A qualified Collin County voter must be a U.S. citizen, resident of the county, 18 years old, not a convicted felon unless they have com­pleted their sentence, in­cluding parole or probation, and not declared by a court to be mentally incapacitated.

The county elections of­fice reported that there are about 628,000 persons regis­tered to vote in Collin Coun­ty, 16 percent more than the last presidential vote. The state of Texas has about 16.6 million registered voters.

In 2016, the county had 540,084 registered voters, and reported a turnout in the presidential election of 67.87 percent. Turnout was down a little, to 61.38 per­cent, for the 2018 off-year election.

For more stories like this, see Oct. 1 issue or subscribe online.

By Joe Reavis • [email protected]