Summary: If you are like many busy architects, balancing the demands of your career and your life takes 25 hours a day, 8 days a week. If getting to the polls on November 4 seems iffy or impossible to fit into your schedule, here’s a tip from DesignVote08 Chair Mickey Jacob, AIA: Consider applying for an absentee ballot or participating in early vote or for other vote by mail. Jacobs reports that many states offer this program or something similar to it, and you are not required to provide a reason for doing so.

This year, the AIA launched DesignVote08, an initiative to encourage member engagement in the 2008 elections. DesignVote08 is a nonpartisan effort to mobilize architects to vote—while also positioning them front and center on the public-policy issues affecting them in the 2008 campaign and for years to come. How you vote is your business. Are you going to the polls to vote on Election Day or are you going to vote early or by mail? DesignVote 08 can help by taking you to your state election office’s Web site, which can tell you how to register to vote and help you identify your local polling place.