COVID-19 has hastened a growing civic and racial reckoning that has been brewing for decades. And, as the 2020 election rapidly approaches, the pandemic may also be responsible for a voting rights calamity if state elected officials do not take swift action to allow for online voter registration during the July special legislative session.
Recent statistics from the New York City Campaign Finance Board indicate that new voter registrations are down by half so far this year in comparison to 2016.
COVID-19 has exposed and exacerbated inequities in historically marginalized communities from the lack of education and police brutality to inconsistent access to healthcare and structural barriers to democracy. Young New Yorkers have marched and protested to highlight these inequities. It is important that state elected leaders act now to ensure that new voters — especially youth and new citizens — can register to vote in this critical election.
The challenge is that when the pandemic hit and the city went into quarantine, civic activity slowed and in-person voter registration events ceased. How do we expect mobilized, would-be voters to register safely and conveniently while in quarantine? Do we really expect new voters, who are used to conducting their personal, educational, and professional lives online, to find and print the voter registration form, then stamp and mail it to their local board of elections office?
While the DMV has an online registration portal, it’s cumbersome and only accessible if you have a state driver’s license or other ID issued by the DMV. The challenge is that many New Yorkers — as many as 700,000, to be exact — do not have a DMV-issued ID. This could bar thousands of eligible voters from participating in this election. In New York City alone, more than 90,000 young people will turn 18 this year and an estimated 500,000 under the age of 30 are eligible to vote, but are not registered.
The solution is clear: New Yorkers need a robust online voter registration system that all New Yorkers can access. And the good news is that the City’s Campaign Finance Board has already built an online voter registration system in June of 2019 through a local ordinance. They just need state authorization to launch the system.