TOMORROW: Hundreds to Rally for Early Voting

NEW YORK, NY (01/22/2018) (readMedia)-- On Tuesday, January 23 hundreds of advocates, including Hazel Dukes, President of the NAACP New York State Conference, impacted voters, and members of the Let NY Vote coalition, will rally in support of Early Voting.

Early Voting would allow citizens to cast ballots in person days, sometimes weeks, before an election. Currently, 37 states already have some form of Early Voting, leaving New York as one of only 13 states without any means to vote early except via absentee ballot.

Background

In his 2018 State of the State address, Governor Cuomo urged the Legislature to institute Early Voting.

New York State lags behind other states in election reform: 37 states and Washington DC have some form of Early Voting.

New York also lacks Automatic Voter Registration which would allow eligible voters to automatically register to vote whenever they interact with a state agency. In addition, 16 other states allow post-incarceration voting, which fosters re-entry through civic participation and is easier to administer. Outdated elections are in part why only 29% of the state's eligible population voted in the last statewide election in 2014, putting New York in the bottom third nationally: New York State currently ranks 41st in the nation.

This year, Let NY Vote, formally known as Easy Elections NY, formed as a statewide coalition of grassroots groups & organizations fighting to modernize New York's elections. The goal is to pass simple solutions in 2018 to improve our elections and make registering and voting easier for all New Yorkers.

The Let NY Vote coalition is made up of over thirty organizations, nonprofits, and labor unions, including the New York State United Teachers, SEIU 32BJ, RWDSU, CWA District 1, as well as the statewide NAACP and National Action Network, civil liberties, reproductive and immigrant rights, criminal justice and re-entry groups, New American, and the LGBTQ community. A full list is available at letnyvote.org