The New York State Senate Democratic Conference is sponsoring a package of bills to simplify the voter registration process for primary, general and special elections after releasing their own report researching low voter turnout. The Senate Democratic report, “Why Don’t More New Yorkers Vote? A Snapshot Identifying Low Voter Turnout,” explains in the executive summary that New York was “41st in turnout in the nation, and [was] worst in the Northeast” during the 2016 general election. This conclusion was based on “unofficial results” available on the state election board’s website cited in the study and an additional study done by the U.S. Election Project.
The Senate Democratic Policy Group, a group of seven senators chaired by Brad Hoylman, surveyed 930 eligible voters researching their behavior to understand exactly why they haven’t been to the polls.
According to the study, a variety of reasons were found as to why voters did not vote in 2016.
They either had work or school obligations and couldn’t make it during the polling hours, were too busy caring for family members, didn’t want to go out in bad weather, missed voting due to illness or disability, didn’t even know that it was election day or could not get an absentee ballot.
Full Article: Senate Dems look to simplify voting process ahead of federal and state primaries – The Legislative Gazette.