The Fulcrum is publishing a series of articles to help people navigate the shifting laws that govern elections. This, the second article, covers voter registration.
There’s a process to participating in an election. While the goal is to cast a ballot and have a say in the government there are some steps required to reach that point. Today, we’re going to review the voter registration process.
Eligible Americans need to register with their state, often in advance of Election Day, in order to vote. This is the first step in confirming eligibility and protecting against voter fraud. In many states, the process can be completed in person, by mail or online depending on what their state offers. Many states also allow people to register on Election Day and then immediately cast a ballot.
And if you believe you’re already registered? It’s still a smart idea to confirm your status through your state’s election office. You can also confirm where you will vote, check or change your party preference, and request a mail-in ballot (depending on the state).
The challenge comes in figuring out the rules in your state.
Each state has its own set of election laws, including their own deadlines and options for registering to vote. It can be very difficult to decipher deadlines within a given state, especially with recent changes to the voting process that have affected identification requirements, postal voting and early voting periods, among other things.
States like Delaware, Georgia and Missouri have day-specific deadlines for registering in person, by mail, and online (the fourth Saturday before Election Day, the fifth Monday before Election Day, and fourth Wednesday prior to Election Day, respectively).
Similarly, New Hampshire has an unusual protocol for voter registration that requires people to register either in person or by mail on Election Day. But if individuals would like to vote earlier, there’s an eight-day registration window that opens 13 days before Election Day.
Some states have a set deadline for registration, except when the deadline falls on a weekend or holiday. For example, Arkansas has a deadline of 15 days before Election Day except if it falls on a Saturday, Sunday or legal holiday. In such a case, the deadline falls on the next business day. Along the same lines, Mississippi requires in-person and mail voters to register 30 days before the election, unless the 30th day falls on a Sunday or legal holiday and the deadline moves to the following business day.
States also may have different requirements for postal registrations. Usually, states will set deadlines for voter registration to be postmarked by a certain date. However, states like Nebraska and North Carolina account for illegible postmarks and set later deadlines for registrations to be received rather than going by a postmark. Some states also may have set deadlines for both a postmark and a received-by date.
Additional reading:
Nine states that require voter registration do not offer an online option: Arkansas, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas and Wyoming.
The outlier in this process is North Dakota; the state does not require voter registration at all and, instead, only requires acceptable identification for a voter to be eligible to cast a ballot in the election.
Twenty-one states offer voter registration on Election Day. However, states will usually require a form of identification or even proof of residency to be eligible to vote.
To ease confusion and difficulties around voter registration, we’ve provided Voter and Election Day Registration Deadlines by states, demonstrated by this map. Please note that it is always a good idea to double check with your state’s voter guides to ensure all dates, times, and information are correct.
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.