A new state service will allow potential voters to use their smartphones to start the process of registering for the general election.

On Wednesday, Gov. Tom Wolf announced that the Pennsylvania Department of State launched 2Vote, a new voter registration text messaging service.Lisa Dart, Carbon County elections director, told the county election board on Thursday that this will allow potential voters with yet another way to start the application.She explained that the 2 million eligible Pennsylvanians who have not yet registered can do so by texting "PA" to "2Vote" on their smartphone. They will then receive a text message with a link to the state's online voter registration website, which includes information on registration status, polling place locaters and contacts for county offices. They must fill out the application and either print it out and mail it to their home county election office or submit it to the state, which will then send it to the county, which will contact the applicant for a signature before it can be fully processed.The state is launching this service as part of its Everyone votesPA education initiative that was introduced in March.The text message link also provides users with important dates and deadlines significant to the Nov. 8 election. The voter registration deadline for the general election is Oct. 11.Dart said that in addition to this new service, the state has started a mailing campaign to eligible voters who have driver's licenses but are not registered.In Carbon County alone, nearly 15,000 mailers were sent out.For more information on the upcoming election, visit

www.pavoterservices.state.pa.us,

www.carboncounty.com or call the county election office at 570-325-4801.