Today is a special election day in Oregon and Idaho — don’t forget to vote!

May 16th is the sec­ond day of Fil­ing Week in Wash­ing­ton State, but in Ore­gon and Ida­ho, May 16th is a Spe­cial Elec­tion Day, with much at stake.

Read­ers, if you live in the Beaver State or the Gem State, it’s very, very impor­tant you exer­cise your civic duty today and vote.

Cour­tesy of the Mult­nom­ah Coun­ty Elec­tions Divi­sion, here are some impor­tant things to know if you’re an Ore­gon voter.

• You can view your reg­is­tra­tion sta­tus at Ore­gon Votes. There you can check or update your vot­er reg­is­tra­tion or track your ballot.
• Bal­lots were mailed begin­ning on Wednes­day, April 26th, 2017. If you did not receive your bal­lot (and you live in Mult­nom­ah Coun­ty), please call 503–988-3720 to request a replace­ment ballot.
• Not all the can­di­dates or mea­sures in the Vot­ers’ Pam­phlet will be on your bal­lot. Your res­i­dence address deter­mines those dis­tricts for which you may vote. Your offi­cial bal­lot will con­tain the can­di­dates and issues which apply to your residence.
• Not all can­di­dates sub­mit­ted infor­ma­tion for the Vot­ers’ Pam­phlet so you may have can­di­dates on your bal­lot that are not in the Vot­ers’ Pamphlet.
• Vot­ed bal­lots MUST be received at any Coun­ty elec­tions office in Ore­gon or offi­cial drop site loca­tion by 8:00 PM, Tues­day, May 16, 2017 to be counted.

There are a lot of school board posi­tions and local propo­si­tions on the bal­lot across Ore­gon. The out­come of these con­tests will deter­mine what kind of lead­er­ship com­mu­ni­ties across the Beaver State will have.

It is too late to mail back a bal­lot in Ore­gon, but it’s not too late to vote. You can look up your near­est bal­lot drop box return loca­tion using this link.

And here’s a sum­ma­ry of the stakes in today’s elec­tion in Ida­ho, cour­tesy of Demo­c­ra­t­ic State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive (and House Demo­c­ra­t­ic Leader) Mat Erpelding:

Depend­ing on where you live, the May 16th elec­tions will deter­mine how Ida­ho moves forward.

Here are just a few of the major issues up for a vote tomorrow.

• In Bon­neville Coun­ty, vot­ers will deter­mine if an East­ern Ida­ho Com­mu­ni­ty Col­lege is created.
• School bond and levy issues will dom­i­nate bal­lots across the state includ­ing in Soda Springs, Emmett, Cot­ton­wood, Nezperce, and Hagerman.
• School board mem­ber elec­tions will deter­mine who plans the future of edu­ca­tion at the local lev­el. Cald­well, Nam­pa, Coeur d’A­lene, Lake Pend Oreille (Sand­point) each have vital­ly impor­tant elections.
• High­way Trans­porta­tion Dis­tricts deter­mine the future of our local trans­porta­tion infra­struc­ture includ­ing bike lanes, paving pre­rog­a­tives, and new expan­sions. Canyon Coun­ty (Canyon Coun­ty High­way Dis­trict, Gold­en Gate High­way Dis­trict, etc.) Koote­nai Coun­ty (Lakes High­way Dis­trict), and oth­ers have elec­tions tomorrow.

If you’re an Ida­ho vot­er, find your polling place by fol­low­ing this link.