Be An Active Citizen

Now that you are an American citizen, you can be an active member of your community. This page will walk you through registering to vote, learning how to vote, and other ways to participate in democracy.

Steps to Becoming a Voter in Virginia

Steps to Becoming a Voter in Virginia

We have created a document that walks you through all the steps for voter registration and how to vote.

Glossaries of election terminology

Created by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, the glossaries contain 1,843 terms and phrases used in the administration of elections in the United States. Languages available include Spanish, Bengali, Chinese, Hindi, Japanese, Khmer, Korean, Tagalog, and Vietnamese.

Participating in other ways:

There are many ways other than voting through which you can participate in the country’s democracy. These ways include:

Reading the local news to be informed of big events. Go to these links to read these local news sources.
Writing to a newspaper. Often, you can write a letter to the editor, which is a short piece of writing that expresses your opinion about a local or national issue.
- The Daily Progress Letter to the Editor: Go to this link and enter information such as your name and address to send a letter to the editor.
Joining a political party.
Helping with a campaign.
Joining a community or civic group. These are local groups with people volunteering toward a common purpose, like giving to charity.
- Family, Community & Civic Organizations in the Charlottesville area: Go to this link to look at the many different community and civic groups in Charlottesville and the nearby area.
Calling Senators, Representatives, and other elected officials and giving them your opinion on an issue.
- Publicly supporting or opposing an issue or policy.
Running for office.