GoVoteNYC was borne out of the shared vision that New York City will flourish when all New Yorkers are informed, engaged, and participating in civic life and elections of municipal and state leadership. In doing so, local and state government will be more representative, responsive, and accountable. 

Without question, the consequences of local elections are far-reaching. In 2023, the City's elected representatives will be the stewards of a municipal budget upwards of $100 billion. How these dollars are allocated for schools, health centers, transit, sanitation, and other critical services have significant implications for all New Yorkers, particularly those living in the most under-served neighborhoods.

In this section, we describe the current civic engagement landscape in New York City.

Persistently Low Voter Turnout

Systemic Barriers to Voting

In recent years, turnout in NYC municipal elections has hovered around 25%, with one study finding that among the 30 largest U.S. cities, NYC ranked #22 in voter turnout.² A closer look at the data shows stark disparities for lower-income areas and newer voters, such as youth. For example, in the 2021 general election, turnout in the Bronx was 17.5%; Staten Island's turnout was nearly double at 33.7%. Turnout among 18-29 years olds in the same election was 11.1%, compared to 37.9% among 70-79 year olds.³

In the 2008 presidential election, New York City had the lowest voter turnout of all major U.S. cities.⁴

An analysis of voter turnout from 2008-2018 by the New York City Campaign Finance Board (CFB) found that in that decade, only 3.1% of registered voters cast their vote in every election in which they were eligible to vote. Over a fifth (21.4%) of registered voters did not turn out to vote in any election they were eligible to vote in.⁵

Additional analysis by the CFB along census tracts revealed that the strongest predictor of not voting in NYC was not registering a political affiliation. Other demographic factors that negatively affected voter turnout were the proportion of individuals with a disability and the proportion of naturalized citizens within a census tract.⁶

Echoing national trends, strong predictors of voter turnout in NYC included age, race, and education. Areas with higher numbers of residents aged 30 and over were more likely to turn out to vote; the same was true in areas with higher proportions of high school graduates. While the proportion of Latinx residents had a small negative relationship with voter participation, both proportion of white and Asian residents were positive predictors of turnout. Percentage of Black residents, however, was not a significant predictor in the CFB’s analysis.⁷ (For more detailed Information, see the CFB's map of voter participation by census tract and community district.)

Our review of the literature, as well as interview findings, surfaced a range of barriers -- from voter alienation to poor administration of elections to lack of information -- that contribute to low voter turnout and illustrate the challenges turnout efforts are seeking to address. 

Voter alienation. In interviews, GoVoteNYC nonprofit partners observed that their constituents saw voting as a low priority activity that had an immaterial impact on their day-to-day lives. This was consistent with a national survey commissioned by the Knight Foundation, which found that the second most cited reason for not voting was that people did not think their vote mattered.⁸ People did not feel seen or represented by their local elected officials and did not feel that voting was a way to speak up on the issues they cared about. 

Feelings of alienation can be especially prevalent in constituencies that have and continue to be disenfranchised or underserved by government. For instance, GoVoteNYC nonprofit partners often observed voter alienation among immigrants, whose home countries may have had autocratic governments, thus fostering low trust in democratic processes. 

Other nonprofit partners who worked in largely Latinx or Black communities also observed a sense of cynicism from voters in their communities. One nonprofit partner put it this way, “How do we communicate the purpose of voting to particularly marginalized and oppressed groups who have seen, time and time again, where their vote has not landed in their favor?”

Election fatigue. Election fatigue can be exacerbated by election processes both unforeseen and longstanding. Notably, in April 2022, the New York Court of Appeals rejected the state legislature’s proposed redistricting maps for Congress and state Senate, resulting in two summer primaries (rather than one), plus the general election.⁹ ¹⁰ 

Moreover, off-year elections, which split federal/state and municipal elections up by even- and odd-numbered election years, increase the number of elections that require attention from voters, adding to the sense of fatigue. A report from Citizens Union found that moving NYC municipal elections to coincide with national and state elections would "drastically improve voter turnout," based on evidence from other cities across the country. Cities that recently consolidated their local, state, and federal elections (e.g., Phoenix, AZ; Austin, TX; El Paso, TX; and Baltimore, MD) saw their voter turnout rates increase by 240%-460%. ¹¹

Board of Elections dysfunction. Negative experiences at the polls compound communities’ reluctance to vote and undermine their faith in the election process. Examples of how voters have been deterred by the BOE’s clumsy election administration include: 

• In 2016, the BOE wrongly purged approximately over 122,000 voters from election rolls in Brooklyn, disproportionately affecting Latinx voters. ¹²

• Jammed ballot scanners in NYC caused wait times of up to four hours for voters in 2018. ¹³

• In 2020, 100,000 Brooklyn voters were sent mail-in ballots with return envelopes with the wrong addresses and names. ¹⁴

• In 2021, the BOE erroneously counted test ballots in the initial tabulation of ranked choice voting results. ¹⁵

In addition, the BOE has been criticized for inconsistent translation and accessibility services, resulting in what one funder called “passive voter disenfranchisement and suppression.” For example, despite a 2013 ruling by the US Court of Appeals that the BOE had discriminated against voters with disabilities, a poll site accessibility survey in 2021 conducted by the Center for Independence of the Disabled, New York (a GoVoteNYC grantee) found that more than half of poll locations were handicap inaccessible. ¹⁶ Moreover, BOE does not make other accommodations for voters with disabilities, such as poll worker trainings, ballot marking devices, and interpreters, consistently available. 

Lack of candidate outreach. Nonprofit partners expressed frustration that candidates and their campaigns did not conduct outreach in the communities that they served, contributing to the belief that elected officials did not care about their needs. Indeed, campaign playbooks often encourage candidates to focus on the small number of voters who are most likely to vote for them, versus the electorate more broadly. The lack of candidate outreach is often experienced by immigrant communities, who are assumed to be unlikely voters. ¹⁷ For example, during the 2020 presidential election cycle, the Asian American Voter Survey found that 58% of Asian Americans did not receive any contact from either Democrats or Republicans. ¹⁸

Closed primaries. Closed primaries mean that voters must be registered with a political party to vote in that primary. Between November 2018 and February 2023, the number of registered voters in NYC unaffiliated with any party rose from 950,575 to 1,047,434, comprising just over one-fifth of all registered voters in the city. ¹⁹ Closed primaries exclude unaffiliated voters from exercising their voice. According to nonprofit partners, this has particularly negative implications for voters in immigrant communities, who often do not receive outreach from either major party, and thus do not understand the difference between them or feel affiliated to either one. 

Lack of understanding and education on election processes and logistics, such as polling site locations, how to register to vote, who’s running, the role of different elected offices, and deadlines are barriers to voting. These barriers are exacerbated for newer voters, especially young people and new citizens, as well as historically disenfranchised communities. For instance, although New York enacted legislation in 2021 that restores voting rights to anyone who is formerly incarcerated, including those that are on parole, lack of education on their rights to vote may continue to disenfranchise justice-impacted individuals. GoVoteNYC nonprofit partners emphasized the need for education on elections, why they matter, and how to register and vote. 

Misinformation campaigns, designed to suppress the vote and decrease confidence that one’s vote matters, are increasingly prevalent. In recent years, election misinformation campaigns have targeted Limited English Proficiency (LEP) communities via platforms that these communities rely on for information (e.g., WhatsApp, KakaoTalk, WeChat). For instance, to deter Chinese Americans from voting in 2020, misinformation posts circulating on WeChat falsely claimed that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security would mobilize the National Guard and military against anticipated riots during the presidential election. ²⁰ Social media platforms have so far been unable to moderate misinformation campaigns that are spread in languages other than English, leaving efforts in the hands of smaller, under-resourced organizations. ²¹

Ongoing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Although the impacts of COVID-19 continue to ease, nonprofit partners reported that many prospective voters were still confused by voting processes, such as mail-in voting, that shifted during the pandemic. In addition, the ongoing social and economic stressors associated with COVID-19 meant that voting fell to the backburner for those already experiencing the most significant hardships. One nonprofit partner observed, “The overload of COVID and a lot of other compounding factors are making it challenging in the day to day for folks -- voting becomes something that's not a top priority.”