Enacts the student voter empowerment act

Showing the cosponsors who are on Agora, A to Z. The official record may list more.

• Democratic24

Shown in neutral colors by design; Agora is non-partisan.

◆ The sponsor's argument

Why Lea Webb says this is needed

During the 2022 midterm elections, 23% of eligible voters aged 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 infoimation, 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 in 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, and allows policies for students to vote The Student Voter Empowerment Act will play a key role in ensuring our public colleges and universities are doing everything they can as trusted messengers of civic information to close the voter registration and turnout gap of young voters across New York.

This is the sponsor's own case for the bill, quoted from their memorandum. It is not Agora's description of what the bill does.