Are you registered?

If you're reading this column, you're probably interested enough to vote in this year's presidential election.

Or, if you are one of those people who won't ever register because you hold the erroneous belief that your vote doesn't matter, just skip this column and go back to your meaningless pursuit of whatever.

For the rest of us who care about how Washington -- and, more importantly, Carson City and Bonneville Drive -- impact us, keep on reading.

The deadline to register for this fall's election is next Saturday. But there are only two more days to do so if you fill out a form that you hand over to someone else.

Last weekend people fanned out across the valley, clipboards in hand, outside grocery stores, at malls, libraries and even soccer fields. Campaigns also went door to door to find out if the voters at home were going to support their candidate. These people, many of them from California, also collected new registrations.

Clark County registrar Larry Lomax said the numbers have already eclipsed the record registration rates seen four years ago.

Despite that, plenty of people you know aren't registered for this election.

So as a public service, I encourage you to fill out the form and turn it in -- or you will be left out of critical decisions.

Sure, we all know about the presidential race. And that's what always gets people jazzed up. But this election is also about whether the Clark County Commission will be made up entirely of Democrats and whether Nevada's three seats in the House will all be held by women.

This election will also determine whether Democrats get both houses of the Legislature and a veto-proof majority in the lower house.

And don't forget about the courts.

People love to complain about judges. You know those activist ones on the Supreme Court. Well, you've got a say there.

And don't forget the ballot initiatives. One asks whether you want to take out an unconstitutional part of the constitution. Eminent domain is back, and here in Clark we have a room tax proposal that nobody is really talking about these days.

North Las Vegas is finally getting around to asking its voters if its judges ought to be lawyers.

And Boulder City has some charter changes and big measures on whether to use land for a hospital and other land for another "straw" into Lake Mead.

These decisions do impact our lives more than anything at the top of the ticket, even though that's what drives turn out and registration.

For the past three weeks, Lomax's crew has worked weekends processing the massive stacks of new voter registrations. On Tuesday, staff was recording the forms received over the weekend. A two-day turnaround isn't bad when you're receiving thousands of forms a week.

For each of the past three weeks, the county has seen an average of 15,300 new registrations. By the end of this week, Lomax said, he expected his office would take in an additional 30,000. "We've got overtime up the yin yang," he said.

And even though there are billboards and ads telling people Saturday is the last day to register, there are still 10 more days after that for procrastinators to turn in their own paperwork. Saturday is the deadline for someone else to turn it in for you. Next week, you'll have to go to the county building yourself to turn in the form.

In presidential years, those last 10 days can be busy for Lomax, too.

In 2004, more than 6,800 people registered in that 10-day window, including more than half of those on the dead last day. So, if you want to vote this year, get your form in now.

If you register by Saturday, chances are you'll be in the bulk mailing of sample ballots. This is important not only to give voters an idea of what is on their ballot, but also to see the language and the pro and con arguments on the ballot initiatives.

If you do procrastinate and register in that final 10 days ending Oct. 14, the county will have a heck of a time getting you that sample ballot before early voting, which starts Oct. 18.

And I know you like to vote early. More than half of Clark voters don't vote on Election Day, opting to vote early or by absentee ballot.

The other reason that sample ballot is so important: It's really proof to the registrars out there that you're in the system to vote. There are 308 versions of the Clark County election ballot. If you decide to vote at the mall, the registrar needs to know how to program your machine.

Scanning the sample ballot saves them time, and spares you aggravation.

If you don't know whether you're registered, the secretary of state has a Nevada database at silverstate08.com. You can reach the Clark County registrar at 455-VOTE.

So, if you want to vote this year, make sure you're registered.

Contact Erin Neff at (702) 387-2906, or by e-mail at eneff@reviewjournal.com.