BILL NUMBER: S2056A Revised 06/10/25
SPONSOR: WEBB
 
TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the election law, in relation to enacting the "student
voter empowerment act"
 
PURPOSE:
Enacts the Student Voter Empowerment act to expand civic engagement
among college students.
 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section 1. Short title. This act shall be known and may be cited as 2
the "Student Voter Empowerment Act."
Section 2. This section requires the City University of the State of New
York (CUNY) and State University of the State of New York (SUNY) systems
to include updated polling place information for students registered to
vote and key voter registrations dates on each institution's website.
This section requires all public and private colleges and universities
to create a voter education website for student use that contains a link
for voter registration and absentee ballot forms, in addition to the
location and hours of the designated polling places for students to vote
and other pertinent information. Additionally, all colleges and univer-
sities will be required to provide applications for voter registration
and absentee ballots to students at the beginning of the school year and
during January of the years of the presidential elections.
This section requires all colleges and universities to designate a
student voting coordinator to develop and implement an action plan to
increase voter participation among students.
All colleges and universities submit a report to the State Board Of
Elections (SBOE), detailing its efforts to promote student voter regis-
tration and participation. promote voter access. The SBOE will make
these reports publicly available on its website. SBOE is authorized to
supplement the date collected by coordinating with academic or non-pro-
fit research institutions that conduct studies on student civic engage-
ment and voter participation to facilitate the analysis of data regard-
ing student voting in the state.
 
JUSTIFICATION:
During the 2022 midterm elections, 23% of eligible voters ages 18 to 29
turned out to vote across the country, making it the second-highest
youth turnout in over three decades. New York's youth turnout rate has
improved in recent elections but still falls behind the national average
with only 20.7% of young voters turning out to vote in 2022. With an
increasing trend of newer voters not relying on major political parties
or candidates for election information, it is critical that we reimagine
how public universities can expand their voter education efforts to
increase youth turnout, dispel voter confusion, combat misinformation
about elections, and promote an informed citizenry of young New Yorkers.
Some public universities like Binghamton University, have robust
programs in place to engage students on the importance of voting and
civic engagement. However, not all colleges and universities have a high
level of engagement or any engagement in civics and the importance of
voting.
This legislation would require all public colleges and universities to
develop and implement student voter action plans with multiple civic
events a year, provide students with regular nonpartisan election
related information via different mediums, work with local boards of
elections to standardize student voter registration, create university
voter committees with students and support student groups doing voter
engagement. Furthermore, the Act outlines the required election-related
information to be sent to students, allows policies for students to
vote, and will enroll all CUNY/SUNY schools in Tuft's National Study for
Learning, Voting and Engagement.
The Student Voter Empowerment Act will play a key role in ensuring our
public colleges and universities are doing everything they can as trust-
ed messengers of civic information to close the voter registration and
turnout gap of young voters across New York.
 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
New Bill
 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
To be determined.
 
LOCAL FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
To be determined
 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect one year after it shall have become law.

Statutes affected:
S2056: 5-211 election law, 5-211(18) election law, 17-208 election law, 17-208(1) election law
S2056A: 5-211 election law, 5-211(18) election law, 17-208 election law, 17-208(1) election law