ONE PERSON, ONE VOTE,
ONE REGISTRATION DEADLINE.

Why is this priority? New York has the most restrictive party enrollment deadline in the country — voters who want a say in next year's presidential primary need to register in a party by this October — locking out millions of voters from having a say in the primaries, where the vast majority of New York’s elections are decided.

Who’s affected? Approximately 2.7 million of New York’s registered voters are not eligible to vote in major party primaries. If unaffiliated voters were their own party, they would be the third largest party in the state, since 1 in 5 New Yorkers is not affiliated with a political party.

What’s the current deadline? There are currently a plethora of different registration deadlines: first time voter, address change, Democratic party affiliation, Republican party affiliation, party affiliations for state versus presidential primaries...the list goes on — this is too complicated!

What’s the current status? In May, 2019, the Democratic Party changed their registration deadline rules, but this isn’t a permanent solution for two reasons. 1) this only effects the Democratic Presidential Primaries. 2) The New York State Board of Elections has indicated that it won’t follow political party rules, only bills passed by the Legislature. We need to make this state law for ALL parties in ALL primary elections.

What’s our legislative solution? We recommend aligning the party enrollment cut-off date with the deadline to register to vote before an election to reduce confusion and streamline the process. Currently, that would mean 25 days before the election. ONE person, ONE vote, ONE registration deadline.