We are in the month when ballots start arriving in mailboxes for voters in Utah. As of the printing of this essay, there are 34 days until Election Day. If you are an eligible voter in the state of Utah, you have a role to play in keeping this republic. If you have not thought about it yet, today is the day to get ready.

First, you need to register to vote. You still have time to do this and it’s so easy. You hop online at vote.utah.gov and fill out the forms, or you can go to the county clerk in the county you live in and fill out a form. If you do this by 5 p.m. Oct. 25, you’ll receive your ballot in the mail in plenty of time to do all the research you need to make a good decision for yourself. My advice is to do the work to know who and what you should vote for, and don’t let someone else tell you what to do. In Utah, you can navigate to votesearch.utah.gov to get all the information you need. Your vote should reflect your position on policies and candidates, so make sure you know everything you need.

Once you’re registered and have learned what you need to make a good decision, cast your ballot. Utah is a vote-by-mail state, but you can still go in person if you would rather. Weber County is hosting its early voting from Oct. 29 to Nov. 1 from noon to 6 p.m. at the Weber Center on Washington Boulevard. Every county will be a little different, so if you live outside Weber County, check with your county clerk. If you like it real old school, then you can still cast your ballot on Election Day at a location designated by your county clerk. In Weber County, that will be from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Nov. 5 at the Weber County Fairgrounds or the Ogden Valley Library.

If you’re like me, I like to cast my ballot at my kitchen counter with my device open so I can research all the issues. This year, there are several amendments on the ballot and I want to sit and think about those for a bit. Then I’ll drop my ballot off at my nearest drop box by 8 p.m. on Election Day. My favorite drop box is the one under constant video surveillance at Weber State University and mostly it’s my favorite because its name is Waldo. You can find the ballot box closest to you on the Walker Institute’s Voter Tools website. My colleague who does geographic information system mapping designed it for us, or you can call your county clerk and ask.

One of the things I think a lot of voters wonder about is if their ballot will be counted accurately. While I tend to be a trusting soul and believe the election officials in Weber County will do an excellent job making sure my ballot is counted accurately, you may want to be sure. You can do this by attending an open house at your county clerk’s office. Weber County’s last one is Oct. 3 at 6:30 p.m. in the Weber Center, and a student of mine is attending to livestream that event on the Walker Institute’s Instagram page, so if you can’t make it, you can watch online. If neither of those works for you, you can call and schedule a tour. Also, every county has an elections security website detailing election controls. Again, if you live outside of Weber County, check in with your county clerk.

I did say I was a trusting soul and generally I respect all public servants from the military to police officers to teachers to election officials, but I also like to know that my ballot is in. I have signed up at trackmyballot.utah.gov so I can receive a notification when my ballot is in process. They’ll tell me when my ballot has been received, when my ballot is being processed and, finally, that my ballot has been counted.

I compare this to my first time voting in 1992 — which, to my students, sounds a little like I hiked uphill both ways in a blizzard to vote — when I mailed in my absentee ballot from college and never heard about it again. Things are so much more secure and transparent today.

Leah Murray is a Brady Presidential Distinguished Professor of Political Science and the academic director of the Olene S. Walker Institute of Politics & Public Service at Weber State University.