It wasn’t long ago that automatic voter registration was common in many advanced democracies, but not here. Slowly but surely, it’s gaining traction in the United States.
The New York Daily News reported yesterday on the latest state to join the growing club.
New York is streamlining voter registration by enacting an automatic process that will add eligible residents to the rolls when they interact with state or local government agencies. The law, signed Tuesday by [Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo], makes it so New Yorkers will automatically be registered or have their voter information updated when they have contact with the government, such as renewing a driver’s license through the Department of Motor Vehicles.
The article added that the new policy will be phased in gradually over the next few years. It’s expected to add 1 million New Yorkers to the voting rolls.
If the overall tally from the National Conference of State Legislatures is correct, New York is the 20th state, plus the District of Columbia, to adopt AVR.
Not bad for a policy that didn’t exist in any state as recently as five years ago.









