Miller is executive director of Nonprofit VOTE, which works to help other nonprofits across the nation boost civic engagement and voter turnout among their allies.
Since the start of the coronavirus outbreak, we've seen a collapse in the number of voter registrations collected or updated because government offices were shuttered and in-person campaigns to find and sign up new voters were put on hold.
We're talking about millions of non-registrations here. It's not a small number. And as the pandemic has persisted the problem has been compounded by the large-scale displacement of people who have had to move, not only the millions in struggling families facing evictions because of the economic downturn but also the millions of students who've moved back home since their universities went fully virtual.
Election Day is in just six weeks. So what do we do to ease this urgent challenge to our democracy?
First and foremost, we need to make sure as many Americans as possible can register, or update their registration to reflect their current address, before their states' deadlines.
This is absolutely essential for voters who wish to take advantage of this year's wave of expanded availability of voting by mail. There is no way to receive an absentee ballot — or in many states even an application to vote remotely — if it's sent to your old mailing address and the Postal Service knows you don't live there.
Today is National Voter Registration Day — a major rallying call to register voters across the nation, which they can do on the National Voter Registration Day website. Started in 2012, it acts as a coordinated day of action between national and local organizations both executing live (and virtual) voter registration events and promoting the importance of being #VoteReady for the November election.
The deadlines for new registrations vary by state. None are in September, but 15 states have cutoffs during the first week of October and 11 more will stop signups a week after that.
The good news is that 19 states and Washington, D.C. are allowing same-day registration this year — meaning eligible people can show up at a place that allows in-person early voting, or to local polling places on Election Day, sign up to vote (or update their registration) and then immediately proceed to cast a ballot. The only downside, this time, is this option means an in-person experience in the face of potential health risks.
So what about voters who are not able to update their voter registration in time for the election? In many cases, they can still exercise their right to vote if they were previously registered elsewhere and their registration is just out of date — but it gets a little more complicated.
If a voter only moves across town, or within the same congressional district, but did not update his or her voter registration, that person can still vote thanks to protections provided by a 1993 federal law. However, they will likely have to go to their former polling location or a central voting site and vote in person. Voting files are often updated in the process to reflect the new address.
Voters who move to a different congressional district within the same state will have a tougher time. There are no federal laws that guarantee their right to vote if they don't register first. Some states do in fact let you still vote, but rules vary from state to state. In these cases, it's best to contact your local elections office or call the national Election Protection hotline.
Finally, voters who move to a different state within 30 days of the election might find the state they just moved to has a registration deadline or residency requirement that prevents them from registering and voting there.
These voters are effectively cast into registration limbo — but there is a way out, in part at least. They can contact their former state's elections office to request a special ballot that will allow them to at least vote in the presidential race.
Again, registering to vote at one's current address is the surest way to ensure you can vote, but if you do miss the deadline, don't give up. It may take longer or require a special trip, but in many cases you can still vote.
With so many rules to navigate, it's important that all of us committed to a vigorous civic life — nonprofits, libraries, universities, businesses and election officials alike — help the communities we serve understand the rules. Our democracy will be stronger for it.
A golden tray sits on the Resolute Desk as President Donald Trump speaks during an announcement on American nuclear innovation in the Oval Office at the White House on July 24, 2026, in Washington, D.C. Trump is signing multiple executive orders targeting the nuclear energy sector and easing rules for new reactors and nuclear fuel supply chains.
Trump’s hubris rivals the fallen heroes of ancient Greek mythology
In January, the New York Times asked President Donald Trump if there were any limits on his global powers.
“Yeah,” the president responded, “there is one thing. My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.”
That was eight months ago, but fortunately Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster adaptation of “The Odyssey” has made ancient Greek literature newly relevant. Before that window closes, I’d like to talk about hubris.
Today, the term mostly means excessive pride or arrogance. That’s part of what the Greeks meant by it too, but the meaning was a bit richer and more specific. Hubris was an insolent or outrageous act that offended the gods, often because the transgressor was claiming abilities or authorities that solely belonged to supreme beings.
Nolan renamed and slightly modified the concept of xenia for the film, calling it “Zeus’ law.” In the director’s telling, mortals should follow the rules laid out by the gods, specifically the requirement to treat strangers with respect lest they be gods in disguise.
In a sense, hubris is the opposite, or at least the rejection, of xenia. The hubris of the suitors, and at times Odysseus himself, invites punishment by the gods and their mortal instruments.
Which brings me back to Donald Trump. His claim that there are no constraints on his personal power to dictate events on the global stage was one of the greatest expressions of hubris ever uttered by a political leader.
Trump’s claim was obviously false when he made it.
He vowed that he could end the Russia-Ukraine war in 24 hours. He’s proved powerless to make that happen. If he had divine powers to work his will, why would he have balked at implementing his tariffs so often that Wall Street adopted the “TACO trade” term for his deals? “TACO” stands for “Trump always chickens out.”
And why would Trump have made so many embarrassing concessions to China — from rescinding tariffs on Chinese goods to allowing them to buy crucial and incredibly valuable computer chips?
But Trump saw his success at capturing Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro as proof of his ability to launch missiles to the same effect as Zeus’ lightning bolts. Trump believed he was the most powerful man who ever lived.
This is no exaggeration. In March, when the Iran invasion seemed successful, Trump gave a document penned by“Presidential Historian David King” to New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan purporting to prove that Trump was “the most powerful person to have EVER walked this planet.” King was, in fact, a businessman and occasional caddy for legendary golfer Gary Player.
King compared Trump favorably to many of history’s most powerful, and often heinous, figures: Alexander the Great, Attila the Hun, William the Conqueror, Napoleon Bonaparte, Joseph Stalin, Genghis Khan, Mao Tse Tung, Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Lenin. Many of these men thought they were the most powerful person in the world, too. And many were defeated precisely because they believed it.
At least Napoleon and Hitler had a string of truly impressive victories before they learned the folly of hubris. The limits on Trump’s power have been exposed by far less august forces than the combined might of the allies in World War II or the fearsome Russian winter.
Iran is a comparatively middling power. But the regime’s ability to absorb punishment while imposing its will on the Strait of Hormuz has proved to be a greater constraint on Trump’s power than his morality or mind. We should note that, at least rhetorically, his morality has not proved much of a constraint. He has repeatedly promised to destroy Iranian “civilization” if the regime refuses to capitulate.
But they haven’t — and won’t anytime soon — because the regime’s tolerance for pain far outstrips Trump’s. The combined fear of skyrocketing oil prices, outrage of Gulf state potentates, diminishing weapon supplies and domestic unpopularity is doing the work that international law, congressional oversight and the collective opinion of foreign policy experts can’t or won’t do.
If I considered Trump more heroic than reason and facts could allow, I would say his Sisyphean predicament has the whiff of Greek tragedy to it. Trump is vexed by the fact that the Iranians won’t honor deals or ratify his countless premature claims of victory — giving new meaning to his vow that his presidency would make people tired of winning. It’s almost like they’re out-Trumping Trump.
Things might have gone better if he’d heeded that great Greek tragedian Sophocles: “For Zeus utterly abhors the boasts of a proud tongue.”
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Jonah Goldberg is editor-in-chief of The Dispatch and the host of The Remnant podcast. His Twitter handle is @JonahDispatch.