Register by Aug. 1. Vote on or before Aug. 30. Everywhere in Polk County

As we travel the county and talk to people, we encounter some very understandable uncertainty about the rules and timing of voting in my August 30 School Board election. Here are the top three points we want to make.

1) Every registered voter in Polk County can vote for me. From Poinciana to Mulberry. From Frostproof to Polk City.

The different district designations only dictate where the candidates must live. All School Board races are countywide votes. And they are non-partisan, which means candidates don't run as Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians, etc.

2) You can't vote if you're not registered.

The clock is ticking. You must register by August 1 to vote in Billy's August 30 School Board election. Or it doesn't matter how much you like what I write. If you don't register and vote, you're voting for my incumbent opponent. You might as well vote for the legacy of Kathryn LeRoy.

I emphasize this because we have deep and intense teacher support. However, teacher after teacher tells me that teachers as a whole are notorious for not registering and not voting. I don't really know if this is true compared to any other group. But I can't take the chance. If we're going to transform the classroom experience, I need the people at the heart of it to vote.

Here is a link to the voter registration information for the Aug. 30 election. It takes you to the page that includes the screen shot below, which explains the process and options in greater detail.

This is the link to the Supervisor Of Elections online voter registration form. You can fill that out and register. But you still must bring a signed hard copy to a Supervisor of Elections Office.

If you have not registered yet, and you want to vote, stop what you're doing right now and figure out how you are going to register by August 1.

3) Election Day is August 30. But there are many opportunities to vote beforehand.

There are three people in my race. If I get 50 percent-plus-1-vote, I win. If no one gets more than 50 percent, the top two candidates have a runoff in the November general election. That's right: we'll be on the same ballot as Trump versus Hillary. So let's win this election August 30, when it commands much fuller attention of the electorate.

Again, here is the link to different ways you can vote. They are:

Vote-by-mail. You can request a vote-by-mail ballot until 5 p.m. on the Wednesday before the election. In this case, that is August 24th.

Here is a link to the vote-by-mail FAQ.

Vote early at several locations around the county -- from August 20 to August 27. Here is a screen shot of those locations.

Again, here is the link to the page with all this information.

Please share this with everyone you know, repeatedly between now and Election Day. We'll keep coming back to it, too.

If you'd like to learn more about or contribute to our campaign, please do that at BillyTownsend.com. Here is the direct link to our secure online giving site.

http://billytownsend.com/donate/

And thank you.