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If you want to switch parties for an NYC primary, re-register by Valentine's Day
By
Brigid Bergin
Published Feb 10, 2025
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Joan Slatkin/Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
By
Brigid Bergin
Published Feb 10, 2025
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Voters who want to change parties before New York City’s upcoming primary elections need to register to the party of their choice by Friday, Feb. 14.
The Valentine’s Day deadline is consequential for citywide contests like the mayoral race. Registered Democrats outnumber Republicans 6-to-1 in New York City, and the winner of the June 24 Democratic mayoral primary has a high likelihood of prevailing in the general election.
And because voters have to be registered to a specific party to vote in its primary, enrolling more voters could boost a candidate’s odds of pulling ahead in Democratic and Republican races alike. Candidates vying to use the system to their advantage argue you don’t need to be in love with a political party to be one of its registered voters.
In a cheeky nod to the Valentine’s Day deadline, mayoral candidate Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani made a video for social media, complete with a love song and a heart-shaped chocolate box containing a voter registration form, asking: “Will you be my Democrat?”
“June 24 is around the corner,” Mamdani sings in a candlelit restaurant, “but you’re ineligible if you’re not a Democrat.”
Some mainstream Democrats and observers outside the party system are skeptical of calls to join a party just to vote in a primary.
“People should register as Democrats who are actual Democrats, especially given how sharp the party divisions and definitions are nowadays,” former Mayor Bill de Blasio told Gothamist.
De Blasio, a self-described progressive Democrat, won two decisive victories in mayoral primaries championing left-leaning policies like universal pre-K. But candidates further outside the Democratic mainstream — like Mamdani, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America — may have a greater interest in recruiting voters who have not been lifelong Democrats.
“The current system makes it highly likely that registering as a Democrat — regardless of whether you agree with them or consider yourself one — is the best way to put yourself in position to impact who the next mayor will be,” said Andrew Yang, an entrepreneur who ran for both mayor and president as a Democrat but now leads the independent “Forward Party.”
This time four years ago, Yang was polling in first place among the 2021 Democratic mayoral candidates, pitching voters his revised take on universal basic income. He finished fourth in the primary and changed his party affiliation to unaffiliated in October of the same year.
“I know a ton of people who join a party just to vote in the primary,” Yang said. “And that definitely is true for New York voters.”
More than 3.4 million voters in New York City are registered Democrats and 573,000 are registered Republicans, according to the latest New York State Board of Elections data. The second-largest share of registered voters, 1.1 million, are referred to as “blanks,” which means they are not affiliated with any party.
Those “blank” voters, combined with approximately 135,000 voters registered to minor parties, cannot participate in Democratic or Republican primaries — leaving a large potential voting bloc untapped.
Advocates have proposed alternatives to the city’s closed primary system for years. Since 2003, there’s been a push in the city to shift to nonpartisan, open primaries that would allow all voters and candidates to participate.
“It's outrageous that voters should be targeted to change their affiliation because our system doesn't allow them to vote in equal measure with every other voter,” said Jeremy Gruber, a Brooklyn-based activist with Open Primaries, a national organization that started in the city to push for nonpartisan local elections here and across the country.
Gruber argues that non-affiliated voters are just as dedicated to their independence as affiliated members are to their parties, and that taxpayer-funded elections should not leave voters on the sidelines. But he acknowledged that changes in city and state law would be needed to bring those non-affiliated voters into the process.
For now, the main competition in the mayoral race remains in the Democratic primary, limited to voters who register as Democrats by Friday. Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat, has vowed to seek re-election despite an ongoing criminal case with a trial scheduled for April.
Adams, who once proclaimed himself “the face of the new Democratic Party” and the “Biden of Brooklyn,” has in recent months made repeated overtures to President Donald Trump, who has the power to pardon him. Adams canceled appearances at Martin Luther King Jr. Day events in the city to attend Trump’s inauguration in Washington D.C., and he has signaled a willingness to roll back New York City’s sanctuary protections for undocumented people, a key priority of the Trump administration.
Adams, like everyone else, would need to update his registration by Valentine’s Day if he wanted to switch parties before the primary.
The current Democratic mayoral primary field includes city Comptroller Brad Lander, state Sens. Zellnor Myrie and Jessica Ramos, former city Comptroller Scott Stringer, businessman Whitney Tilson, and Mamdani. Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo is still being eyed as a potential late entrant to the race.
Attorney Jim Walden has said he may try to run as a Republican, but he would need to update his party affiliation by Friday, unless the local party chairs give him a waiver to run without being a registered member. Walden did not respond to a request for comment about whether he intends to enroll in a party.
The quickest way to ensure the Board of Elections receives your registration in time is to submit it online by Feb. 13, or you can go to your borough’s office in person through Friday.
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new york city
Politics
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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