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Contact: Mark Mahoney
Associate
Director, Media Services and Public Affairs
Mmahoney@nysba.org
518-487-5532
January 25, 2013
STATE BAR ASSOCIATION CALLS FOR MODERNIZATION OF
NEW YORK’S ELECTION SYSTEM TO BOOST LOW TURNOUT
The New York State Bar Association today offered recommendations for
modernizing the election process in New York, including allowing early
voting, online voter registration and Election Day registration. The
goal is to boost the state’s abysmal voter turnout and
registration levels.
The Association’s House of Delegates approved the report of the
Special Committee on Voter Participation at its January 25 meeting in
New York City.
“New York, once a leader in civic participation and voting, has
fallen behind other states, in large part because its registration and
voting procedures have failed to keep up with innovative practices and
modern technology,” said State Bar President Seymour W. James, Jr.
(The Legal Aid Society in New York City). “It is important to the
democratic process that barriers which inhibit or discourage voter
participation be removed.”
In the last three elections, New York ranked 47th in average voter
turnout nationwide, and New York’s participation numbers have
plummeted since 2000, the report states. In 2010, New York had the 16th
worst voter registration rate nationwide, with less than 64 percent of
eligible New Yorkers registered to vote. During the 2008 presidential
election, only 59 percent of New York’s eligible voters cast a
ballot, according to the report.
Difficulty in voter registration is often cited as a reason for low
voter turnout and enrollment. The report— borrowing ideas from
other states and democratic countries that have successfully boosted
enrollment and turnout— contains numerous recommendations,
including:
• Modernize the voter
registration process to include making voter registration available
online and making the voter registration process available
electronically every time a citizen engages in a transaction with a
state or federal agency.
• Allow
pre-registration of 16- and 17-year-olds to boost turnout among the
18-21 age group. Online registration and registration through motor
vehicle departments has proven to be an effective method to boost voting
among young people, who traditionally have the lowest voter registration
rates in New York.
• Amend the state
Constitution to allow statewide Election Day registration and, in
instances where early voting is adopted, same-day registration at the
polls. In the interim, towns and villages should consider adopting the
practice for local elections, as currently allowed under the state
Constitution.
• Until same-day
registration is adopted in New York, the state should amend the cutoff
date for voter registration to the constitutional limit of 10 days prior
to an election instead of the current 25 days mandated by the state
Legislature.
• Allow limited,
in-person early voting to give citizens the option of voting in person
prior to Election Day. The committee recommended limiting early voting
to a few days before Election Day so as not to dilute attention from the
races or substantially increase costs of staffing polling places.
The committee also made the following recommendations:
• Improve ballot design
to minimize voter confusion and mistakes by boosting the minimum font
size to 12 points; clear away clutter such as the required “closed
fist” (with pointing finger) symbol at the head of rows and
columns; simplify voting instructions; and provide ballots in multiple
languages to encourage voting among those for whom English is not their
first language.
• Expand recruitment and
training of polling place workers and improve conditions for them to
alleviate some of the difficulties voters face at their polling
places;
• Crack down on
deceptive practices such as “robo-calling” that are designed
to discourage voter participation, and change New York’s laws to
provide criminal penalties for deceptive practices that suppress voting.
The committee recommended boosting penalties to reflect existing
penalties for voter registration fraud, including creating a Class E
felony punishable by up to 4 years in prison.
Given the success of implementing similar practices in other states and
major democracies around the world, the report said the state could
realistically achieve turnout and enrollment of at least 80 percent
within “a few years.”
“We believe that, if implemented, the changes we recommend would
have a very significant impact on voter participation, bringing New
York’s rates of registration and voter participation up to levels
of which the citizens of the state can and should be proud,” the
report states.
The committee said it did not support expanding the use of absentee
ballots as a way to boost turnout. “No-excuse absentee
voting,” which allows people to vote by absentee ballot without
providing a legitimate reason, has proven to be vulnerable to fraud,
errors and disqualified ballots, the report states.
The Special Committee on Voter Participation, appointed by President
James in October, is chaired by former Assistant U.S. Attorney General
and state Senator John R. Dunne of Albany (Whiteman Osterman &
Hanna) and Daniel F. Kolb of New York City (Davis Polk & Wardwell).
The 21-member committee was politically and geographically balanced to
ensure fairness in its evaluations and recommendations.
To read the entire report, visit www.nysba.org/votersreport.
The New York State Bar Association, with 76,000 members, is the largest
voluntary state bar association in the nation. It was founded in
1876.
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