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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 10, 2007
Contact: Tim Rusch, Demos
Tel: (212) 389-1407 Email: trusch@demos.org
Voting Rights Policy Center Demos Issues Statement Praising Governor Spitzers Election Reform Package
"Proposal critical to expanding voter participation, minority representation"
New York, NY--This week, Governor Spitzer proposed a broad overhaul of New York's election laws, including Election Day Registration (EDR), a reform that allows eligible voters to register and vote on the day of elections, and the creation of an independent redistricting commission. In response, Steven Carbó, Senior Program Director of the Democracy Program at Demos, a national voting rights and election reform policy center, issued the following statement:
"Governor Spitzer proposes important steps that New York can take to expand voter participation and enhance the representation of New York's diverse population.
"One key reform in the plan, Election Day Registration, has a proven track record of expanding voter participation. States that have allowed citizens to register on Election Day--Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, Minnesota, Wisconsin, New Hampshire and Maine--have voter participation rates that are generally 10 to 12 percentage points higher than states without EDR. In the 2006 election, EDR enabled over 746,000 individuals to register and vote on Election Day.
"By adopting EDR, New York would join a growing list of states removing barriers to the voting booth. Montana became the seventh EDR state in 2006, and Iowa Governor Chet Culver signed Election Day Registration into law last month. Legislation to make EDR law is also gaining momentum in several other states.
"Another significant reform in the plan, Governor Spitzer's redistricting proposal, would amend New York's constitution to create an independent commission every 10 years to redraw boundaries for congressional and state legislative districts. Albany lawmakers currently control the redistricting process.
"The fair representation of New York's diverse communities in Albany and in Congress should be one of the chief goals of any redistricting plan. I commend Governor Spitzer for proposing that no senate, assembly, or congressional districts in New York be drawn in a way that undermines minority voting rights. It is also encouraging that Governor Spitzer has included diversity among the factors to be considered in making appointments to the redistricting commission.
"Demos now calls on New York's governor and legislative leaders to improve upon these advances as redistricting reform moves forward. The proposed redistricting commission must ensure that communities with shared political, socio-economic and cultural interests are kept intact when it draws district boundaries, and that requirement should be given higher priority in the proposal.The state should also revise the way that it calculates the population of upstate prison inmates. Counting them as residents of counties with correctional facilities works to artificially swell the number of legislators sent to Albany and Washington, DC from sparsely populated areas of the state, at the expense of New York's urban core.
"Election innovation and a fairer representation of the states reform demographic diversity are essential to bringing more New Yorkers into the political process. Assembly and Senate leaders should join Governor Spitzer in making democratic reform a top priority in the current legislative session."
For more information on election reform and voting rights, visit www.demos.org.
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