This\nweek is the deadline to register for those who wish to vote in the 2019\nelection in New York State. That\u2019s\nright, a full 25 days before the election is the deadline to register. In many cases, busy New Yorkers may not be\npaying attention to the candidates until Election Day gets closer. For those would-be New York voters, they will\nbe shut out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Why a 25-day\ndeadline? Good question. Voting is a constitutional right, not a\nprivilege. Yet New York is notorious for\nmaking it difficult to vote. And the\nimpact is clear: New York State had a Voting Eligible Population (VEP) of nearly 13.8\nmillion in 2018. VEP is the most reasonable measure of participation and\nincludes citizens over 18 who are not incarcerated for a felony. However,\n12.7 million New Yorkers were listed by the New York State Board of Elections\nas either active or inactive voters for the same time period. That means\nover one million eligible<\/em> citizens were not registered to vote. \nWhile the comparison of these two datasets is imperfect, it underscores that\nmany New Yorkers who are eligible, are simply not registered to vote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Simply put, New\nYork\u2019s voter registration and voter participation rates are anemic. In the 2018 general\nelection, a stunningly low percentage of registered New Yorkers \u2013 an estimated\n45.2 percent \u2013 voted. A review of the U.S. Elections Project analysis\nshowed New York to be among the worst in the nation in terms of eligible voter\nturnout. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When\nNew York is near \u2013 or at \u2013 the back of the nation in voting, why hasn\u2019t the\nstate acted to improve things instead of making them worse? One reason is that partisan differences on\nthe issue have blocked needed reforms. \nAnother reason is that incumbents get elected by those who do vote \u2013\nincumbents may fear that reforms that bring in new voters may put them at risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After\nyears of failing to act, Governor Cuomo and the State Legislature this year began\nto attack some of the long-festering problems in New York\u2019s system of\nelections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Among\nthe changes, lawmakers agreed on legislation to allow for early voting and to allow\n16 and 17 year olds to register to vote prior to their 18th birthday. They also agreed to the first passage of a\nconstitutional amendment that \u2013 if approved a second time and then approved by\nthe voters in a referendum \u2013 would allow voters to register and vote on\nElection Day. Fifteen states plus the\nDistrict of Columbia offer \u201csame-day registration\u201d so any qualified resident of\nthe state can go to register to vote and cast a ballot all on the same day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Two\nweeks ago, the governor approved legislation that took another step toward\nmodernizing New York\u2019s elections. New\nYork has one of the nation\u2019s earliest deadlines for being able to register in\nadvance of an election. And in a\npeculiar twist, the state\u2019s registration deadline rules dramatically impact\nvoter participation in Presidential primaries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The\nDemocratic and possible Republican Presidential primaries in New York will be\nin April 2020. Until recently, the\nlast day voters could change their party enrollment for the 2020 Presidential\nand state primaries was Friday, October 11, 2019, making New York the longest\nwait time in the nation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Under\nthe legislation approved by the governor, New Yorkers will have until February\n14, 2020 to decide if they wish to change political parties in order to vote in\nApril\u2019s Presidential primary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For\nyears, New York’s election calendar has been criticized, especially before and\nafter the 2016 presidential primary. \nMany unaffiliated voters didn’t learn until days or weeks before the\nprimary election that the deadline to change their enrollment had passed months\nbefore. The approved legislation changes\nthat from a 190-plus day period to roughly 70-plus days for the Presidential\nprimaries. Still a long time to wait,\nbut far better than the current situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Of\ncourse, it\u2019s always best to register in advance of the deadline for this\nNovember\u2019s election \u2013 October 11, 2019. \nIn this way, you can be sure to have your voice heard in the elections\nof 2019 and 2020.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This week is the deadline to register for those who wish to vote in the 2019 election in New York State. That\u2019s right, a full 25 days before the election is the deadline to register. In many cases, busy New Yorkers may not be paying attention to the candidates until Election Day gets closer. For […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2306"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2306\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2307,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2306\/revisions\/2307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}