December 31, 2020 | less than a minute read

New York Enacts Automatic Voter Registration

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Jason P.W. Halperin

Member

Get in touch

Jason P.W. Halperin

Member

New York gave its citizens a gift for the holidays last week when Governor Cuomo signed into law automatic voter registration, making New York the 20th state to enact AVR. The AVR law was passed in July by New York's Legislature, after being championed for years by my very good friend Michael Gianaris, the Deputy Majority Leader of the New York State Senate.

Five years ago, not one state had enacted AVR. As of today, 20 states plus the District of Columbia have done so. AVR is one of the key reasons that we hit record voter turnout in the 2020 presidential election, which, at 67%, was the highest voter turnout rate in the United States since the election of 1900. When you make voter registration automatic, you reduce barriers to voting. The results speak for themselves.

BREAKING| Dec 22, 2020,04:39pm EST| 7,569 views New York Gov. Cuomo Enacts Automatic Voter Registration In Bid To Boost Election Turnout Tommy Beer Forbes Staff Business TOPLINE New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday signed into law New York’s Automatic Voter Registration Act of 2020, a bill that aims to increase civic engagement by streamlining and improving voter registration at multiple state agencies in New York. It designates agencies such as the Department of Motor Vehicles to work in tandem with the Board of Elections. Individuals who are eligible to vote will be automatically registered (unless they opt out) when they apply for services such as Medicaid, unemployment, and public housing. A single document will serve as an application for services offered by these respective agencies and a voter registration application, and those agencies will transfer registration information electronically to election officials instead of using paper forms.