Activists Rally In The Rain For Vote Reform

OSSINING, NY — In the pouring rain, the Let NY Vote Coalition and CCoHOPE Indivisible joined Tuesday to demand state leaders pass automatic voter registration, restoration of voting rights for people on parole, and change of party enrollment deadline to 25 days before a primary.

Joining the activists at the rally were Ossining Town Supervisor Dana Levenberg, Westchester County Legislator Catherine Borgia and representatives from Senator Carlucci's and Assemblymember Galef's offices.

"We in local and county government believe that the ballot really belongs to the voter, not to the government. We want to make sure that we make it easier for people to be able to be voters," Levenberg said later in a statement.

AVR would automatically register eligible New Yorkers to vote when they interact with a government agency (i.e., the DMV, Department of Health, etc.). In the current system, the DMV offers an opt-in system which leaves many — 1.1 million eligible New Yorkers — unregistered.

• With AVR, people will not get to the polls only to find they are not registered. New York will join 15 states and Washington DC that have already implemented some form of AVR. Last month the Senate held the first-ever hearing on AVR.
• The deadline to change party enrollment would move it to 25 days before the primaries. Previously voters have had to declare their party in the previous calendar year to an election, before candidates were even declared. Voters wishing to participate in primaries often find they could not vote in a primary because they are registered in one party but wished to cast a vote in the other party's primary. This problem is particularly frustrating for people registered as independents who may care deeply about which candidates the main parties will offer in the election. As a result, participation in primaries is very slight, only core party members participate and choose who is on the ballot.
• Voting rights for people on parole needs to be codified in law, so that restoration becomes an automatic process. Unless made automatic upon release, re-registration of people released from incarceration is an additional procedure people often do not know they must follow. This is another group excluded at the polls.

In January, the Legislature passed — and Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed into law — early voting, consolidation of primaries, pre-registration of 16 and 17 year olds, and registration portability, which allows New Yorkers who move within the state to have their voter registration automatically updated via the USPS.

The Let NY Vote Coalition is a statewide network of over 175 member organizations ranging from Interfaith Council, to NAACP New York to New York State Indivisible.