Does voter registration status affect your health? Hospitals say yes, and are signing up people to vote this November.

Philadelphia-area hospitals are rallying patients and staff to register to vote ahead of a high-stakes presidential election in which Pennsylvania has become a critical battleground. Hospitals say the initiative is not about playing partisan politics, but rather to address the ways social and economic factors, such as violence, pollution, housing can profoundly affect health. Hospitals from University City to the Philadelphia burbs have set up information tables alongside cafeteria checkout counters, given staff lanyard badges with a QR code linked to a voter registration website, and changed the computer screensavers to a message reminding them to vote. Such efforts are being organized nationally through groups like Vot-ER, which describes itself as a nonpartisan voter registration nonprofits, but has drawn criticism from the Republican National Committee and other conservatives for having ties to Democrats.