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A state law could help prevent disenfranchising young voters. Why is NY ignoring it?
By
Brigid Bergin
Published Apr 26, 2023
Modified Apr 26, 2023
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Brigid Bergin/Gothamist
By
Brigid Bergin
Published Apr 26, 2023
Modified Apr 26, 2023
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A small fraction of New Yorkers who are 16 and 17 years old have completed the process to preregister and automatically be added to voting rolls when they turn 18, according to a new report.
The report by the Civics Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit that aims to register every eligible U.S. high school student to vote, says only 16.5% of the eligible teens preregistered so far, and also found that New York City performed at even lower levels than most of the state. The group used census data and state voter registration to determine the eligible population and voter preregistration rates for each county.
In 2019, state lawmakers enacted a law allowing young people to be preregistered to vote as part of an effort to increase the state's low rates of voter participation.
Hear WNYC senior reporter Brigid Bergin’s story on low voter pre-registration rates in New York:
“When young people, especially 18 and 19-year-olds, aren't registered in high school in an educational setting, it can take years for them to even get on the voter rolls,” said Laura Brill, the Civic Center's founder and CEO.
Brill said the report highlights the lack of planning, organization and general awareness of New York’s preregistration law, as well as the need for schools, parents and students to play a role in implementing it effectively.
Brill said that democracy is eroded when young people aren’t on the voter rolls.
“Candidates can't see them, can't understand their concerns, and can't really represent them and all of us in the way that they should,” said Brill.
Nearly half of all those who preregistered, 46.7%, opted not to select a party affiliation, according to the report.
Across the five boroughs, the overall preregistration rate is 5.2%. Those numbers range from 2.9% in the Bronx, which is considered the lowest rate, to 12.2% on Staten Island, which is still 4 points below the state average. Queens comes in at 6.4%, and Manhattan and Brooklyn are tied at 4.6%. For those who selected a party affiliation, 79% registered as Democrats.
Among the top 10 counties that achieved a preregistration rate of more than 40%, most were in the state's more rural areas, and more young people registered as Republicans. The report also found preregistration rates were lower in counties with a higher median income and higher levels of educational attainment.
There is additional state legislation that would require public and private high schools to hold voter registration drives in support of the preregistration law. The bill passed the state Senate earlier this year and is currently in committee in the Assembly.
In New York City, there is an annual Civics Week as part of the three-year-old Civics for All curriculum, which is designed to enhance students' knowledge of and involvement with democracy. Since 2019, the program has registered some 80,000 students to vote through school-based voter registration drives, according to the city’s Department of Education.
Committed teachers are a key component of this process.
On Staten Island, social studies and U.S. government teacher Amanda Ferrara beamed when she talked about preregistering her high school juniors to vote.
This past March, 850 of the 1,100 juniors at Tottenville High School completed voter registration forms that would automatically add them to the voter rolls when they turn 18, according to Ferrara. That’s a 77% completion rate.
“How are you going to talk to these students about the history of America and why it was the way it was without telling them how it was changed?” Ferrara said Monday. “Voting is the No. 1 way to do it.”
But Brill said the Civics Center is also pushing for student-led efforts to coincide with graduation activities. Its “Cap, Gown and Ballot” initiative offers free training to students about how to run a voter registration drive at their school.
There are also New York City-based organizations that offer similar training. Y-Vote, a nonprofit focused on youth civic engagement, also trains young people to lead voter registration drives along with teaching them about other civic engagement opportunities. That includes participatory budgeting, the process where New Yorkers can decide how $1 million of a council member's capital budget allocations can be spent. (The city’s Civic Engagement Commission is also running a participatory budgeting process on a different calendar.)
Sonja Aibel, 16, is a junior at Brooklyn Technical High School and a part of Y-Vote’s Changemaker Institute. After Advanced Placement exams in May, she is planning to organize a voter registration drive at her school in order to have a larger conversation about what can happen when students are active in their communities.
“There are a lot of issues that are really significant to my peers and myself, whether that be queer justice or educational equity, or climate justice,” said Aibel. “And the connection needs to be made between voting and civic engagement, and change in those issues.”
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democracy
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voting
Politics
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Brigid Bergin
Brigid Bergin is an award-winning senior reporter on the People and Power desk. She is fiercely committed to telling stories that help people engage and support democracy. In 2022, she hosted a live, ten-week call-in politics show ahead of the midterm elections called The People's Guide to Power. Brigid's reporting in 2017 included some of the first coverage of a political newcomer now known as AOC. In 2016, she broke the news of a voter purge in Brooklyn just days before New York’s presidential primary, triggering city, state and federal investigations. Brigid also guest hosts The Brian Lehrer Show and All Of It. She graduated from the University at Albany and the CUNY Newmark School of Journalism. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or Signal 917-723-4719.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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