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No excuses: You can now register to vote online! Do it!

No? It’s about to get a lot easier for you!

Remember when you didn’t register to vote because you couldn’t find the form/Board of Elections address/mailbox to mail the form? Those days of weak excuses are over! Just last week, Governor Cuomo announced that New Yorkers can register to vote online via the Department of Motor Vehicles’ new web portal. Because yes, to increase turnout on election day, the quintessential democratic act of casting a ballot should be associated with the ease and sense of empowerment one feels when ordering kung pao chicken through Seamless.

Seriously though, this is pretty awesome for your lazy ass, the tree you saved, and of course, society. The big catch is that you have to have some form of New York State ID, which you should have if you’re takin’ our jerbs (or unemployment!). You’ve already missed the deadline to register for New York’s primary, but you’ve got until Oct. 12 to register for the big dance in November. And as you know, if all us young, struggling people out there don’t vote, we give politicians a reason to ignore the things that are important to us.

If you want to register the old fashioned way, without obtaining a state ID, you can still mail in a paper application. You can also thank your lucky stars you don’t live here or any of these other states. And If you think voting doesn’t matter for you cause New York isn’t a swing state, remember that there are plenty of heavily contested state and local races!

Follow Rachel as she raises high the roof beams of democracy: @RachelEveStein.

2 Comments

  1. conaldarcy

    Finally! The downloadable paper application required a printer that could print two-sides on a sheet of legal paper. Who has that kind of equipment?

  2. Laney Bowman

    I moved to AZ from NC a month ago.I missed the deadline for registering in Az.So I got NC to send me a ballot by mail it was late getting here.I can’t get it mailed in time. I want to vote now I can’t what to do.

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