Still feeling the electoral hangover from 2020? We don’t blame you, but it’s officially time to get back out there.

Nov. 2 is election day in Pennsylvania.

» LIVE UPDATES: Follow our live coverage of the 2021 election

Philadelphia will elect a district attorney, city controller, and a very long list of judges. There are also plenty of local races to decide in Philly’s suburbs. Additionally, Philadelphia voters will get a say on four ballot questions, including letting legislators in Harrisburg know if you favor legalizing marijuana.

Voter turnout tends to dip during odd-numbered election years, particularly in Pennsylvania where statewide and federal races all happen during even-numbered years. In the May primary, turnout in Philadelphia was 21%. Still, that doesn’t mean these elections aren’t important.

Here’s what to know about the Nov. 2 election and how to make your voice heard, whether you’re planning to vote in person or by mail.

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There’s no law that says you have to vote, but voting is a key part of participating in a democracy. It’s a civic duty that could shape the future for generations. Plus, by not voting you potentially give more power to those with views different than your own.

This year a lot of judges are on the ballot as well as Philadelphia district attorney candidates with very different criminal justice philosophies. While statewide and federal elections get a lot of the attention, the truth is, most residents of Philadelphia are far more likely to come into contact with a judge — think Traffic Court or jury duty.

The decisions handed down by the Commonwealth, Superior, and Supreme Courts impact everyday Pennsylvanians “probably more so than a legislator,” said Deborah Gross, president of advocacy organization Pennsylvanians for Modern Courts.

“The judges in these positions really rule on every aspect of a person’s or business’ life,” Gross added.

In the past few years, these higher courts have been asked to settle major disputes between Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration and the Republican-controlled legislature, including the state’s handling of the pandemic, how it runs elections, and more.

If a Republican wins the governorship in 2022 and the GOP maintains control of the legislature, these courts will likely take on an even more prominent role.

Plus, the more people that vote, the more elected offices start to actually look like the communities they represent. The voters are the boss — and the way to give politicians and local officials direction is by using your ballot.

💻 You can check your voter registration status on the state’s website by entering your name, license number, or PennDot ID.

☎️ You can also call 1-877-VOTESPA or your county’s election officials.

📅 The municipal election will be held Tuesday, Nov. 2.

🕖 Polls are open from 7 a.m. until 8 p.m. on Nov. 2, Election Day. As long as you make it in line by 8 p.m., you’ll be able to vote.

💻 If you’re planning to vote in person on Nov. 2, you can find your polling place on the Department of State’s website, where you’ll need to enter your county, city, and street. Philadelphia also has its own lookup tool.

We encourage you to check your polling place before heading out to vote, as it may not be the same one you’ve used in the past.

☎️ You can also call your county’s elections officials. A list of phone numbers can be found on the Department of State’s website.

📅 Completed ballots have to be received by your county elections office by 8 p.m. on Nov. 2.

✉️ You can send your ballot back to their county’s election officials by mail. Note: If you mail your ballot, it still has to be received by Nov. 2. Postmarks don’t count.

🚶 You can also hand deliver ballots to your county elections office. Philly voters can also head to the County Board of Elections office in City Hall (Room 140), request a mail ballot there, fill it out, and hand it back on the spot.

📮 In Philadelphia, there are also 16 drop boxes across the city where you can return your mail ballot.

Yes. It is very important that you seal your ballot in the smaller inner “secrecy envelope” (it says “Official Election Ballot.”) Put that envelope in the outer return envelope and make sure to sign and date the voter’s declaration.

If you’re going the mail route, it will be important to make sure you’re sending the ballot back properly. A naked ballot is a mail ballot that a voter submits without an inner “secrecy envelope.”

Pennsylvania uses a two-envelope system: Filled-out ballots go first inside a blank, anonymous secrecy envelope, and then into the return envelope that is addressed to the county elections office and has the voter’s signature and information. If voters place the ballot directly into the return envelope, it’s “naked.”

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has ruled that naked ballots must be rejected under state law, meaning those votes will not be counted.

💻 You can check on the status of your mail ballot on the Department of State’s website by entering your name, date of birth, and county.

The Philadelphia District Attorney’s office is the largest prosecutor’s office in Pennsylvania and a top ticket race in the city this year.

In a ho-hum year for local races, Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner’s bid for a second term has been the most-watched on the ballot.

Krasner, a Democrat, is challenged by Chuck Peruto, a leading defense lawyer and former Democrat who supported Krasner in 2017 but became disillusioned by his policies. There is no dispute that Krasner is a leader among a new breed of progressive-minded city prosecutors. He has drawn the ire of the police union and former prosecutors who think he has put too much focus on undoing unjust convictions by his predecessors and not enough on the rising rates of some crimes.

He easily defeated a former assistant district attorney, Carlos Vega, in the primary. Peruto has trailed in campaign money and attention and faces a 7-to-1 Democratic registration disadvantage. Krasner has refused to debate Peruto.

The city controller is the city’s chief auditor and performs duties independently of the mayor and city council. Philadelphia Controller Rebecca Rhynhart is running unopposed and will be the only candidate on the ballot as she seeks a second term. Rhynhart unseated an incumbent in 2017 to become the city’s fiscal watchdog, responsible for auditing the city and school district.

Pennsylvania’s highest court. The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania is made up of seven members. A seat on Pennsylvania’s highest court is the big prize in this year’s statewide elections.

Democrats have a 5-2 majority, and Republican Justice Thomas Saylor is stepping down at the end of the year after he reaches the mandatory retirement age of 75. So the balance of power isn’t at stake; the best Republicans can do is hold onto Saylor’s seat on the bench.

Republican Kevin Brobson, of Dauphin County, is president judge of the Commonwealth Court. He was first elected to the intermediate appellate court in 2009 and won a retention election in 2019.

Democrat Maria McLaughlin is a Superior Court judge from Philadelphia. She was elected to the appellate court in 2017, and previously was a Common Pleas Court judge. Before that, McLaughlin served as an assistant district attorney in Philadelphia.

» READ MORE: Pennsylvania elects most judges. Here’s how the process works.

Democrats have a 5-2 majority on the court — an advantage they’ve held since they won three open seats in 2015.

The high court made a splash in 2018 when it threw out Pennsylvania’s congressional map, ruling that it was an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander designed to benefit Republicans. The court imposed a new map, helping Democrats pick up seats in Congress.

In 2020, the court heard multiple election-related cases and ruled on disputes arising from the Wolf administration’s coronavirus restrictions. On the docket for the upcoming year is a case in which Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers are trying to reverse a decades-old Pennsylvania court decision banning the use of state Medicaid dollars to pay for abortions.

» READ MORE: Abortion is a key issue for Pa. Democrats, and it could supercharge the 2022 midterms.

The Superior and Commonwealth Courts are the state’s intermediary appellate courts — hearing the first appeals of cases before they can be appealed to the Supreme Court. There are 15 Superior Court judges hearing more than 8,000 cases a year, making it the busiest of the three appellate courts. The judges are chosen in statewide elections, and serve 10-year terms before coming up for retention. (Vote for one.)

Often, the cases Superior Court handles do not involve public figures, but there are exceptions. It denied convicted child molester and former Penn State football coach Jerry Sandusky’s appeal for a new trial, and upheld Bill Cosby’s sexual assault conviction before it was overturned by the Supreme Court.

There is one seat open on Superior Court because Republican Judge Susan Gantman is retiring.

In addition to hearing appeals from lower courts, the Commonwealth Court is also usually responsible for hearing appeals or, in some cases, the trials involving state government and elections. There are nine Commonwealth Court judges. Candidates on the ballot are the top two vote-getters from each party’s primary. In recent weeks, it has been the venue for lawsuits filed by State Senate Democrats and Attorney General Josh Shapiro to stop a Republican-led investigation of the state’s last two elections. Several Republican legislators have also filed a suit in the court opposing a state law expanding mail voting.

Judges serve initial 10-year terms, then face a retention vote, for another 10 years. These retention votes, in which voters vote simply whether someone should stay office, are almost always won by the incumbent judges, who do not face an actual opponent.

Now, there are two seats open on Commonwealth Court, and the top vote-getters of the four candidates will secure spots on the bench.

The Court of Common Pleas handles major civil and criminal cases as the trial court of general jurisdiction for a county.

In Philadelphia, with only 12 candidates on the list, all are basically guaranteed a seat. The three who didn’t run in the primary were handpicked by the Philadelphia Democratic Party after three incumbent judges retired after the May primary passed. Those have been dubbed “magic seats” or “golden tickets” in the world of Philadelphia judicial elections.

» READ MORE: ‘Magic seats’ create new Philly judges who don’t even have to campaign and are guaranteed a seat. Here’s how it works.

More than 500 judges preside over entry-level courts across the state, known as Municipal Court in Philadelphia. They handle minor civil, traffic and criminal cases. In Philadelphia, 27 judges hear trials for some misdemeanors, summary offenses and felonies. With only five candidates on the list, all are basically guaranteed a seat, including two who did not run in the primary but were selected by the Democratic Party for “magic seats.”

Judges in Pennsylvania are elected and serve six- or 10-year terms before coming up for retention. This year, 24 sitting judges are up for retention, which is simply a “yes” or “no” vote on the ballot, without their party affiliation listed. Judges come up for retention every 10 years until the mandatory retirement age of 75. The Philadelphia Bar Association, in addition to recommending candidates for judge, recommends whether judges should be retained here.

In Pennsylvania, the three main poll workers in a precinct — the judge of elections, a majority-party inspector, and a minority-party inspector — are elected every four years.

» DETAILS: judges of elections

There are lots of local races happening in Philadelphia’s collar counties, including what have become some highly contentious school board races around the country.

Bucks County: District attorney, sheriff, prothonotary, recorder of deeds, controller, court of common pleas, magisterial district court, municipal and school board offices, judge of elections, and inspector of elections. Democrats in the collar counties have had sweeping successes in recent elections. The Bucks County district attorney is the sole remaining Republican countywide row officer. Democrats hope the race to oust him becomes a model for winning competitive races in next year’s midterm elections. If he wins, it would energize Republicans as they seek to take control of Congress, retain their majorities in the state legislature, and win back the governor’s mansion in 2022. More information can be found on Bucks County’s website.

Chester County: Treasurer, controller, clerk of courts, coroner, common pleas court, magisterial district court, municipal and school board offices, judge of elections, and inspector of elections. Sample ballots can be found on Chester County’s website.

Delaware County: County council, sheriff, controller, register of wills, common pleas court, magisterial district courts, municipal and school board offices, judge of elections, and inspector of elections. Sample ballots can be found on Delaware County’s website.

Montgomery County: Court of common pleas, magisterial district court, jury commissioner, municipal and school board offices, judge of elections, and inspector of elections. Sample ballots can be found on Montgomery County’s website.

New Jersey has a governor’s election. Gov. Phil Murphy is seeking a second term. Murphy, 64, is campaigning on legislative actions, raising the minimum wage and passing a millionaire’s tax, as well as on his handling of the coronavirus pandemic. Polls have shown that registered voters generally approve of his crisis response, particularly in terms of his decisions regarding masking and vaccines.

A former Goldman Sachs executive, Murphy would be the state’s first Democratic governor in decades to be reelected.

His opponent, Jack Ciattarelli, is campaigning on lowering the state’s property taxes, revamping the school funding formula and addressing other cost-of-living issues. A businessman and former state assemblyman, the 59-year-old Ciattarelli has also attacked Murphy’s handling of the pandemic, saying his business restrictions gutted the state’s economy. He has also said Murphy’s decision to send COVID patients back into their long-term care homes cost lives. Murphy has said the administration mandated that such patients be separated.

Voters in Philadelphia this year are asked to answer four ballot questions, three which would result in immediate changes in how the city government functions and a fourth on marijuana legalization, which is meant to send a message to legislators in Harrisburg.

Think of this one like a really big petition being circulated by Philadelphia City Council on the ballot. It won’t change anything immediately, but it will take the pulse of the electorate and — Council hopes — pressure Harrisburg to advance a bill to legalize recreational use of cannabis.

The Office of Fleet Services oversees some 6,000 city vehicles and trucks as it has since Ed Rendell created it as mayor in 1992. This would make the department permanent.

This would be a big change to hiring in city government, one that advocates say could increase diversity in the municipal workforce. The city’s current hiring rules require applicants to take a test. Only the two highest-scoring candidates get an interview in a department. Eliminating that rule would reduce the reliance on standardized tests and allow the city to decide how many finalists departments could interview for each position.

The fourth ballot question asks Philadelphia voters to require about $25 million earmarked for the general fund to go to the city’s Housing Trust Fund. Advocates say this will allow the city to expand access to affordable housing and address the city’s housing crisis. Those against, including Mayor Jim Kenney, say the mandated funding would limit the city’s ability to manage its general funds and argue it’s better to incentivize developers to pay more into the fund.

This article contains information from the State Department of State, Philadelphia Commissioners Office, Spotlight PA’s election guide and the Committee of Seventy. Staff writers Jonathan Lai, Andrew Seidman, Pat Madej, Laura McCrystal, Allison Steele, and Chris Brennan contributed reporting.