Whether you like President Trump or not, I don’t think it is particularly controversial to say that he is trying to make it harder for some Americans to vote this fall. Whether he is motivated by a genuine concern about voter fraud or simply believes that suppressing turnout will benefit his party is a question on which reasonable people may disagree—although I feel fairly confident it is the latter. Either way, the practical effect is the same: you may need to work a little harder this year to make sure your vote is cast and counted.

The good news is we have lots of ways to vote in Virginia.

In-person early voting begins in Virginia at the end of this week on Friday, September 18th. Falls Church City residents can vote early at the registrar’s office at City Hall, Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., with additional weekend voting opportunities in October. Fairfax County residents have similar options, with three locations opening September 18th and 13 more opening later in October. You can find Fairfax County locations and hours at https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/elections/early-voting.

If you already know how you plan to vote, there is no prize for waiting until Election Day. Vote as soon as you can! But have you made up your mind about everything on the ballot?

We have members of Congress on the ballot and I encourage voters to reelect Mark Warner to the Senate and Don Beyer and James Walkinshaw in the 8th and 11th Congressional Districts, respectively. Virginians will also decide the fate of three proposed amendments to our state Constitution.

As I made my way through a series of political events over Labor Day weekend, I was surprised by how many people had no idea these questions would be on the ballot this fall. That is a problem, because amending our Constitution is a big deal and these three questions deserve more attention than they have received.

The first would add a right to reproductive freedom to Virginia’s Constitution. Put simply, it would mean that Virginians, not politicians in Richmond, get to make their own decisions about contraception, fertility treatment, pregnancy and abortion. These decisions are personal, complicated and sometimes heartbreaking. They belong to patients, their families and their doctors, not the government.

Amendment 2 would remove the outdated language in Virginia’s Constitution banning same-sex marriage and make clear that every lawful marriage between two adults is entitled to equal treatment. Marriage equality is already the law of the land, but the right recognized in Obergefell v. Hodges is now threatened by a runaway U.S. Supreme Court. Those discriminatory words remain in our Constitution, and it is long past time to take them out.

Finally, Amendment 3 is about voting rights. Today, someone convicted of a felony must personally ask the Governor to restore their right to vote. The amendment would restore that right automatically once a person has completed their incarceration and returned to the community. At that point, we should be helping people become full participants in civic life, not making them petition the Governor for permission to vote.

These amendments deal with very different questions, but there is a common thread running through all three. They are about the freedom to make decisions about your own life and the freedom to participate fully in our democracy.

Putting those protections in our Constitution is critical to what we want Virginia to look like and where we want to go in the future. A constitutional amendment is not something the General Assembly can simply change with a vote in a future session. It is a decision that Virginians make for themselves.

We all have different experiences and priorities, but our democracy works best when people bring those differences to the ballot box rather than staying home. Because we have so many opportunities to vote, I hope you’ll exercise that opportunity this election season. Early voting starts on September 18th and goes through October 31st. You can request an absentee ballot be mailed to you and register to vote until October 23rd. You can also register after this date, through Election Day, and vote using a provisional ballot. We’ve set up our elections so you have options, so don’t sit this one out.

See you at the polls!