St. Joseph County held an "Elections 101" event to educate voters on how elections are conducted. The county uses Unisyn Voting Solutions machines, which officials believe are secure and easy to use.

Final voting will soon open, and with it comes the annual Oscar rite of passage: Doing your civic duty for cinema, making tough artistic choices and trying desperately to remember who won last year.

Not all Academy members can vote for every award category Every year, members of the Academy nominate films for over 20 different Oscar categories The short lists for nominations usually come out in ...