Here’s something that has nothing really to do with features or theta-roles. Maybe in some senses about checking.

You may have heard that there’s a presidential election coming up here in the US relatively soon. For those of you who are US citizens, there is a hurdle that I just wanted to remind you of, though: to vote you need to be registered, and registration deadlines are starting to approach.

You can find a state by state breakdown of deadlines at eac.gov, along with web addresses for each state’s official election site. In general, as a student in MA, you have the option open to you either to register to vote in MA or in your home state (in which case you will also probably need to request an absentee ballot), at least as long as one of the deadlines has not passed.

For MA, mail-in registrations must be postmarked by October 15.

The earliest coming deadlines are October 4, for NV, RI, SC, WA, and VI, followed closely by (Oct 5) AK, (Oct 6) AS, AZ, AR, CO, DC, FL, GA, HI, IN, KY, LA, MI, MS, MT, OH, WY, (Oct 7) IL, NM, (Oct 8 ) MO. The latest mail-in deadlines are (Oct 25) IA, NH, (Oct 29) VT. The rest are in between, except for PR, for which the deadline has already passed.

Also, Massachusetts has traditionally not really been “in play” in national elections, so you might weigh that as well when deciding between registering in your home state and MA, at least if your home state is more likely be in play. I make no representations as to its accuracy, but CNN does have a little color-coded map of what states are in their estimation in play. Though, you know, vote anyway, even if you’re voting in a dark-solid-colored state.

Ok, back to theta roles.