TOMORROW: Let NY Vote Hosts Grassroots Summit on Voting Rights in New York

NEW YORK, NY (12/08/2018) (readMedia)-- On Sunday, the Let NY Vote coalition will host a grassroots summit on the future of voting and election reform in New York. Advocates and elected officials will meet and discuss crucial democracy reforms like early voting, automatic voter registration, flexibility to change parties, and consolidation of primary dates.

Activists held a similar meeting in Albany last week.

Background:

This year, Let NY Vote, formerly known as Easy Elections NY, formed as a statewide coalition of organizations & grassroots groups fighting to modernize New York's elections. The goal is to pass simple solutions in 2019 to improve our elections and remove barriers to registering and voting for all eligible New Yorkers, such as:

Early Voting: in place in 37 other states, allowing citizens to cast ballots in person days, sometimes weeks, before an election.

Automatic Voter Registration: in place in 16 other states, allows eligible voters to automatically register to vote when they interact with a state agency and provides a vehicle for those agencies to efficiently transfer voter registration information to the Board of Elections.

Flexibility to Change Parties: 49 States have open primaries or allow voters to change their party close to Election Day. New York does neither. Instead, New York has the most restrictive deadline in the country. To participate in the 2018 primary, voters had to register this change more than 6 months earlier, before candidates had even been solidified, disenfranchising up to 3 million registered NY voters.

Consolidation of Primary Dates: Currently New York has two primary days in June and September, confusing voters. New York is the only state with two primaries.

WHO:

Members of the Let NY Vote Coalition

State Senator Brian Benjamin

WHAT:

WHAT: Grassroots summit on voting rights in New York.

WHEN: Sunday December 09, 2018 at 11:00AM Eastern Time (US & Canada)
WHERE: The National Black Theatre in Harlem
2031 5th Ave
Manhattan, New York
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