BILL NUMBER: S88
SPONSOR: GIANARIS
 
TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the election law, in relation to providing for automatic
voter registration and preregistration for persons applying for certain
department of motor vehicles documentation, and for Medicaid enrollees
 
PURPOSE:
To enhance our automatic voter registration (AVR) procedures
 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section one of the bill amends § 5-900 of the election law to carve out
license and ID transactions with the Department of Motor Vehicles, as
well as Medicaid enrollment transactions with the Department of Health
or county and city departments of social services, from existing auto-
matic voter registration procedures, as these transactions are made
subject to more specific requirements in section two of this bill begin-
ning on January 1, 2028 (except that transactions involving Standard
licenses will be subject to those more specific requirements beginning
on January 1, 2029). Section one of the bill also provides for the use
of substantially equivalent text to any text specified for automatic
voter registration forms.
Section two of the bill amends the election law by adding a new § 5-901,
which establishes specific automatic voter registration procedures for
individuals conducting a driver's license or identification card trans-
action with the Department of Motor Vehicles.
Section three of the bill amends the election law by adding a new §
5-901-a, which establishes specific automatic voter registration proce-
dures for individuals enrolling in Medicaid with the Department of
Health or county and city departments of social services.
Section four of the bill amends § 5-902 of the election law to clarify
that existing procedures for processing registration records without an
exemplar signature apply when a person is registered to vote other than
by affirmatively submitting a registration application.
Section five of the bill amends § 5-904 of the election law to clarify
that existing procedures regarding a presumption of innocent authorized
error in registration apply when a person is registered to vote other
than by affirmatively submitting a registration application.
Section six of the bill amends § 5-308 to add that if no response is
received within 45-day notice sent to people registered through the
automatic voter registration process who did not select a political
party, a second notice regarding party affiliation shall be mailed.
Section seven of the bill sets the effective date.
 
JUSTIFICATION:
In 2020, New York honored its commitment to expanding access to the
ballot box by adopting an automatic voter registration (AVR) system.
Rather than require citizens to opt into voter registration, AVR removed
this unnecessary barrier by registering eligible voters automatically
whenever they interact with government agencies such as the DMV or DOH.
Voters would be given the opportunity to decline - or opt out of - voter
registration, but the default would be to keep eligible voters regis-
tered in order to maximize voting access and participation.
Now, as we await the implementation of AVR, it is critical that we make
necessary upgrades to our AVR procedures, not only to streamline the
process even further, but also to ensure that vulnerable communities are
fully protected. This bill adopts an "Enhanced AVR" system, utilizing
best practices from other AVR states to refine and improve New York's
system.
Enhanced AVR relies on citizenship verification procedures already in
place for driver's licenses and Medicaid enrollment transactions to
automatically filter those who are clearly citizens into a fully stream-
lined automatic voter registration process, while automatically filter-
ing those who are clearly not citizens out of any voter registration
opportunity. Individuals with indeterminate citizenship based on these
agency procedures would be required to affirmatively indicate eligibil-
ity and select registration, instead of being automatically channeled
into an opt-out process.
Enhanced AVR has been adopted in 10 other states and Washington, D.C.,
to ensure that AVR systems are as secure and effective as possible.
These changes fully streamline the voter registration process for people
who are clearly eligible, providing the option to decline post-transac-
tion. These upgrades also ensure that address updates from DMV And Medi-
caid transactions automatically reach the voter file, ensuring current
and accurate registration records.
At the same time, these changes create additional protection to reduce
the risk of mistaken registration by ineligible people. By contrast,
under current law, the onus is on some ineligible people to affirmative-
ly decline registration, creating the possibility of human error due to
inattention, confusion, or limited English proficiency. In our efforts
to expand voting access, we must balance the goal of fully streamlining
registration for eligible people with the goal of protecting vulnerable
persons from an honest mistake. That is the balance Enhanced AVR
achieves.
 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
2024: S8752-A (Gianaris) PASSED SENATE / A9732-A (Reyes) died in
elections
 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
TBD
 
LOCAL FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
TBD
 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect January 1, 2028.

Statutes affected:
S88: 5-902 election law