Just a couple things to do before it’s all over

Good news, folks.

The 2016 election is nearly over.

As you read these words, there are just 26 days until Election Day. Just 26 days until it’s safe to watch TV and not hear that some candidate is corrupt or ambitious virtually to the point of homicide.

Just 26 days until you can go to the mailbox and pull out your bills without having to grab those oversize political mail pieces with their outsize claims.

Just 26 days until you can return to your Facebook account without the fear of every single electronic conversation degenerating into an argument over who wants to make America great again, or whether America already is great.

The end is in sight.

But there’s just a few things to consider before it’s all over.

First, if you’re not registered to vote, there’s still time.

The drop-dead deadline (please pardon the expression) is Tuesday. You can go online to the secretary of state’s website or show up in person at a government elections office and sign up to cast a ballot.

Many people will wonder if their participation really matters or question whether their vote will make a difference. They must remember that there are local-government elections in Nevada that have been decided by a single vote. So every vote really does count.

And while poll numbers are always changing, the fact is, Nevada is going to see some extremely close races, races in which one, two or a few hundred or thousand votes will make the difference between who wins or loses. And those races could decide whether Democrats or Republicans control the Assembly or state Senate next year in Carson City.

But registering to vote is just the beginning. There are a couple more steps in the process.

The second is education. This is where a lot of people give up, wondering where they can possibly find out what’s really going on, what’s true and what’s false, in order to determine for whom they should vote.

Good news: There are plenty of places for voters to find reliable information about the candidates, the issues and the initiatives they’ll face when they finally go to the polls.

At the top of that list is the Review-Journal, which has devoted plenty of resources, time and expertise into assembling its general-election voter guide. It will be published in the print edition of the newspaper on Oct. 23, but it will also be posted online on the newspaper’s website. In that guide, you’ll find loads of information about all the political races and the ballot initiatives voters will be asked to decide.

But there’s a lot more.

For example, tonight, KLAS Channel 8 will air a U.S. Senate debate between Republican Rep. Joe Heck and Democratic former Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto. That debate airs at 7 p.m. and will be followed by a one-hour post-election special featuring reactions from undecided voters.

And speaking of Channel 8, the TV show I co-host, “PoliticsNOW,” has been covering the races consistently during the entire election cycle. Most of that content is posted online on the station’s website at 8NewsNow.com.

Oh, and those wonderful attack ads? You can find out the truth thanks to Politifact’s Riley Snyder, whose work is archived on the group’s Nevada-specific website.

Finally, there’s one last duty to perform: Vote!

Two weeks of early voting makes going to the polls very convenient. The process begins Oct. 22 and runs until Nov. 4.

You can find information about early voting polling places on the Clark County Election Department website.

If you’re a traditionalist like me, you’ll go to the polls on Tuesday, Nov. 8.

The 2016 election is nearly over, folks. But before it is, let’s all register, get informed and turn out to cast a ballot.

Steve Sebelius is a Review-Journal political columnist. Follow him on Twitter (@SteveSebelius) or reach him at 702-387-5276 or SSebelius@reviewjournal.com.