Albany, NY—A statewide coalition of more than thirty organizations has announced support for an “Enhanced Automatic Voter Registration (AVR)” bill. The legislation, led by Senate Deputy Majority Leader Michael Gianaris (S8572) and Assemblymember Karines Reyes (A9732) would build on recent efforts to modernize the state’s election system and improve New York’s substandard participation rate in elections compared to other states.
View the full letter of support here.
“The Enhanced AVR bill would strengthen New York’s democracy by making voting more accessible to nearly one million eligible voters of color,” said Murad Awawdeh, President and CEO, New York Immigration Coalition. “The legislature must prioritize Senator Gianaris and Assemblymember Reyes’s bill, which will modernize our election system, enfranchise low-income New Yorkers, and take an important step forward to combat New York’s shockingly low voter participation rate.”
“Enhanced AVR will move civil rights forward in New York - particularly for the Black communities in the state that we work with,” said Bertha Lewis, CEO & Founder of The Black Institute. “Enhanced AVR has the potential to register 300,000 Black New Yorkers to vote. This is the next step to a more equitable democracy.”
“It is only fitting that we celebrate Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month by supporting Enhanced AVR, which will make a major difference in enfranchising the state’s fastest-growing population of Asian Americans. As a charter member of 18% and Growing, a coalition of 90+ nonpartisan AAPI organizations representing low-income Asian American New Yorkers, we fully support Enhanced AVR which can bring potentially hundreds of thousands of new AAPI New Yorkers into the system," said Wayne Ho, President & CEO of the Chinese-American Planning Council.
Enhanced AVR is a big step for Latine communities across the state,” said Theo Oshiro, Co-Executive Director of Make the Road New York. “Latine working-class communities have been growing in number, and this will help them make their voices heard. We endorse Enhanced AVR, which holds the promise of ensuring Latine New Yorkers are fully part of the electoral process and given the power of the ballot.”
“It is only fitting that we celebrate Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month by supporting Enhanced AVR, which will make a major difference in enfranchising the state’s fastest-growing population of Asian Americans. As the lead agency for APA Voice, a coalition of nonpartisan AAPI organizations seeking to build the power and voice of Asian American New Yorkers, the MinKwon Center fully supports Enhanced AVR that can bring potentially hundreds of thousands of new New Yorkers into the system," said John Park, Executive Director for the MinKwon Center for Community Action.
Ten other states have adopted Enhanced AVR systems, including, Massachusetts, Michigan and Colorado, to name a few, while New Jersey is moving forward with a similar bill.
Enhanced AVR is meant to help move forward New York State’s existing automatic voter registration policy. New York passed AVR in 2020 but implementation by agencies has been delayed since then. Enhanced AVR is meant to help move this process forward by fully automating the voter registration process for eligible New Yorkers at key target agencies like the Department of Motor Vehicles and the state Department of Health, while giving individuals the choice to opt out afterward. The system also improves protections for New York State’s immigrants, using automation and documentation-based verification methods which greatly reduce the possibility that any ineligible New York State resident is registered to vote.
In addition, the bill is expected to have a significant impact in racial equity in our elections, as an analysis of voter database information by the Institute for Responsive Government indicates that the bill could add an estimated 360,000 additional registrations for Black voters, 400,000 additional registrations for Latino voters, and 200,000 additional registrations for AAPI voters.