Removes the personal appearance requirement for voter registration or renewals

2 Co-sponsors

• Liz Krueger
• Gustavo Rivera

BILL NUMBER:S5125

Title of bill

CONCURRENT RESOLUTION OF THE SENATE AND ASSEMBLY proposing an amendment to section 6 of article 2 of the constitution, in relation to the personal appearance requirement for voter registration

Purpose of bill

This bill amends the New York State constitution to repeal the require- ment that in order to register to vote a voter make "personal applica- tion". This amendment is necessary in order to pave the way for a voter registration system whereby every citizen, upon a specific occurrence, is registered to vote automatically by the state.

Summary of provisions of bill

Section one of this bill repeals the terms "upon personal application" currently contained within section 6 of article 2 of the state constitu- tion. This provision requires citizens, upon their own personal initi- ative register to vote.

Justification

In March of 2015 Oregon became the first state in the country to create a system of voter registration whereby any Oregon citizen with a valid driver's license is automatically registered to vote. Oregon predicts this initiative will add up to 300,000 new voters to an already engaged electorate of which 52 percent cast ballots in the November 2014 election. In the same election, 28.8 percent of New York State voters cast ballots, tying for the third lowest turnout among states in the nation's lowest voter turnout since 1942.

This constitutional resolution is necessary to pave the way for the state legislature to enact a system of automatic voter registration should it so desire. Should a voter not wish to be registered, he or she can opt out of the system or simply not return the election ballot in the mail since Oregon administers an all mail election system.

Currently, the state constitution requires a voter "upon personal appli- cation" to register himself or herself to vote. The state's voter regis- tration system further outlines in Article 5 of the Election law addi- tional requirements and methods pertaining to voter registration. This constitutional requirement would need to be passed and ratified however, in the event the state wished to move forward with such a system whereby voters were automatically registered.

Legislative history

New bill.

Fiscal implications for state and local governments

None to the state.

Effective date

Resolved (if the) concur, that the foregoing amendment be referred to the first regular legislative session convening after the next succeed- ing general election of members of the assembly, and, in conformity with section 1 of article 19 of the constitution, be published for three months previous to the time of such election.