Over 2 million New Yorkers are not registered to vote. The New York Votes Act will make registration automatic and ease barriers to voting.
Every first grader learns this about voting: It is a right…just like the right to free speech or the right to worship. There are no government forms to fill out, no applications required to exercise our right to speak, worship, or assemble in small groups. These rights are automatic in the Constitution.
The right to vote is also guaranteed by the Constitution, but there’s a difference. Voting is anything but automatic.
Even the most politically engaged and astute citizen may find the voter registration and absentee ballot instructions at www.elections.ny.gov daunting and it doesn’t have to be this way. Other states have changed the way voters register. New York can too. We can make voter registration automatic.
Suppose you renew your driver’s license. Or register for classes as SUNY or CUNY. Or apply for unemployment insurance. Or interact with a New York State government agency for any one of a number of reasons. We could have a system where actions like these would automatically result in your being registered to vote….unless you opted out.
In this system, your county board of elections would automatically receive the information needed to add you to the voter rolls. No muss, no fuss, no postage, no errors, no effort. If you opted-out, no information would enter the registration rolls.
We already have a system in place to do it. New York can electronically transfer voter registration information from the DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles) straight to election officials.
The League of Women Voters supports opt-out voter registration, where citizens are registered to vote automatically unless they block the transfer of voter registration information by opting out. It’s a good idea because it…
- eliminates human error, making voter rolls more accurate
- keeps the voter rolls more up-to-date
- makes it easy to eliminate outdated or duplicate records
- saves the state money since less is spent on staff time, paper processing, and mailing
- boosts registration rates and turnout.
A significant handful of states have already adopted automatic voter registration, including Connecticut, Oregon, and California. “It’s one of the biggest things you could do to boost participation…“ says Jonathan Brater, counsel for the Brennan Center for Justice, a nonpartisan law and policy institute at New York University Law School.
We need it here. New York has about two million eligible voters who are not registered. We can do better than this.
And while we’re at it, let’s add these LWV-approved reform measures to voter registrations to maximize participation:
- Make registration portable so voters can stay on the rolls when they move within the state or change their name.
- Allow pre-registration for 16- and 17-year olds to help create life-long voters.
- Provide state funding for modernizing voter registration to support Opt-Out
Let’s get this done so we can opt-in and still decide to opt-out. Our democracy depends on it.