Improving Voter Participation in NYC

New York State ranks near the very bottom of all states in voter turnout, aided by a 25% turnout of registered voters in NYC last fall, yet this largely is a product of an inflexible and out dated electoral system in New York.

On October 1st, Common Cause NY’s Research and Policy Manager, Prudence Katze, testified at the New York City Council Governmental Operations Committee to urge the passing of bills with potential to improve the voting process within two crucial, but often over-looked, groups, High School youth and prisoners.

Young people, between the ages of 18 and 30, are the least likely to vote out of any other age demographic. Building off the success of Student Voter Registration Day, Intro-628-215 would create a way to measure how many students are being registered at each school within the New York City public school system. This baseline of measurement will be a way to encourage and monitor progress.


CLICK HERE for more information about Intro-628-215.

Intro-464-2014 mandates the New York City Department of Corrections to both register voters who are in the corrections system and distribute and deliver absentee voting ballots. Distributing and providing assistance in filling out these ballots is a simple way for people to maintain their ties with society while the government does its part in maintaining the jailed individual’s civil rights.

CLICK HERE for more information about Intro-464-2014.











NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote! Michael H. Drucker

NY Penny-A-Day Keeps Corruption Away Campaign

On July 2, 2013, New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo appointed the “Commission to Investigate Public Corruption” under the Moreland Act and Executive Law Section 63(8) to probe systemic corruption and the appearance of such corruption in state government, political campaigns and elections in New York State.

The Fair Elections campaign, a bipartisan coalition of good government activists gathered on the steps of City Hall Wednesday to kick off the “Penny-A-Day Keeps Corruption Away” campaign supporting the Moreland Commission’s recommendation in its preliminary report for comprehensive campaign finance reform.  They recommendations included using New York City's public matching funds system as the guide for the state's system.

The campaign highlights the fact that the cost of public financing and enforcement is roughly $3 per New Yorker a year, while the cost of ending what the campaign deems “legal bribery” amounts to billions of taxpayer dollars.

At the conclusion of the press conference, which included remarks from Susan Lerner, executive director of Common Cause NY and Dick Dadey, executive director of Citizens Union, activists collected pennies from people on the street, hoping to build public support for the movement.

Karen Scharff, the executive director of Citizen Action of New York said that Fair Elections plans to eventually appeal to elected officials to sign on to their campaign.

“We wanted to start out with the grassroots movement first … we’re going to do it across the state, at a dozen different locations over the course of the next few weeks, then later this month we’ll get sign-ons,” Scharff said.










NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote!

Michael H. Drucker
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