Online Voter Registration in New York: It's Time
Florida recently joined the 20 other states that offer online voter registration. New York was an early adopter of this increasingly popular and bipartisan election reform. With Governor Cuomo’s 2012 executive order requiring the Department of Motor Vehicles to allow customers to register to vote through its website, New York became the 11th state to allow online registration.
Creating DMV’s online voter registration portal was a positive first step, but it does not go far enough. Too many New Yorkers, especially those who live in areas like New York City with robust mass transit systems, cannot access this system because they do not have a driver’s license or other DMV-issued ID.
In April, NYC Votes, the Campaign Finance Board’s nonpartisan voter engagement campaign, brought 100 concerned citizens to Albany to support election reforms. One of the bills that we supported on Advocacy Day 2015 was A5564/S859 for a better online registration system. This bill would require the New York State Board of Elections to provide online voter registration through its website and allow voters to provide their Social Security numbers in order to register online, ensuring every eligible citizen can take part in this system.
New Yorkers want the power to engage in the political process with the convenience and flexibility that online registration provides. A universally accessible online registration system would better meet the needs of New Yorkers who expect to manage every facet of their daily lives online, from paying their bills and banking to buying their groceries.
Online voter registration will create a more accurate and complete voter roll. Under the current system, most registration forms are manually entered by BOE staff. This creates an enormous burden for the agency. A crush of voter registration forms arrive just before the registration deadline which falls just before the election itself when BOE staff are busy preparing poll sites and other logistics. It should be no surprise, then, that many voters are not able to locate their names in the poll books. Their registration was entered incorrectly, or too late. Online voter registration will help reduce the number of typos, misplaced forms and other errors that the current system introduces to the voting rolls.
The whole system will work more efficiently, for voters and for the Board of Elections, when voters can submit and update their own voter registration data online. While the upgrade will require some upfront investment to ensure that it works properly and securely, most states that have already adopted it say that online registration is cost-effective.
We live in a smartphone world, but we still have a 19th century pen-and-paper voter registration system. NYC Votes urges swift passage of this legislation to bring voter registration into the 21st century.