New Yorkers turn up for a lot of stuff.
[Music: "Turn Down for What?"]
Broad City: "We don't have a bathroom, we don't even have dressing rooms. This is a pop-up, bitch."
But there’s one thing they’re really bad
at turning up for: voting.
Lena Dunham: "Ok, we're going to vote now"
Only 25% of New York’s registered voters
voted in the 2014 gubernatorial race. In the 2008, only 61% of registered New Yorkers
showed up at the ballot box, which was the worst voter turnout for any major American
city and the turnout was even lower in 2012. The truth of the matter is that New Yorkers
don’t vote. It’s so bad the state ranked 48 out of 50 in 2014 in terms of voter turnout.
With all eyes on the New York primary and candidates trying to publicly eat as much
pizza and flawlessly swipe as many metrocards as humanly possible, a lot is riding on the
New York vote. So we went to a Bernie Sanders rally at Washington Square Park to find out
what is up with all these New Yorkers not voting.
So many people I know, especially young people and students totally missed the deadline,
even thought they really wanted to vote. And they probably would have. But they missed
the deadline. Or didn't know how to do it. Do you have friends who missed the deadline?
Yeah my friend didn't register in time. Actually, a couple of them didn't.
I think it's intentionally a complicated process where every state has difference rules. Some
are open, some are closed. some are caucuses, different dates, things like that.
Of course we were at a Bernie Sanders rally, so one specific issue kept coming up.
They make it hard for you to switch parties it's like 6 months in advance of the primary,
which I think is not really cool. I think they make it harder.
He’s right, the primary is closed to registered members of each party and the date to change
party affiliation was October 9th of last year even though the primary is happening
in April. So a lot of people on both sides of the aisle missed that date, including…Donald
Trump’s own children. "It's one of the most onerous rules in terms
of registration, and it required us to register a long time ago, almost — close to a year
ago. And we didn’t do that. We found out about it sort of after the fact.”
This makes it especially hard for independents who want to be part of the primary.
I had to switch over from independent and when I heard Bernie was running last fall
I immediately switch over because I looked it up but I know a lot of people who are not
going to be able to vote who want to. Do you think that puts Bernie Sanders at a
disadvantage? Yeah I mean it's clear. No question the party
system is set-up to keep an outsider out. It's abundantly clear everyone can see it
the veil has been lifted we see what happens when an outsider tries to run for the highest
office in the country, there's no question. That guy standing on the fence is sort of
right, caucuses with same day registration have favored Bernie and could explain why
he’s done so well in those contests. “The caucuses, he does better in the caucus
situation because people vote on election day. They've had time, don’t have time for
early voters. They tend to go for Hillary because they’ve known her for a long time.
The people wait and wait and they vote on election day, so Bernie has done well.
But New York’s voting problem goes beyond this primary. And it’s not like some people
haven’t tried to make it easier to vote in elections in New York, many have tried
to amend laws to make it easier to switch parties, or allow for early voting, but since
the state doesn’t have a secretary of elections, like most states do, those changes just haven’t
happen because no one is championing them. In all fairness, it’s not like New Yorkers
are all that different from the rest of Americans, the US has one of the worst voter turnout
rates in the world. In fact, according to PEW, it trails most developed countries. So
modernizing our electoral process wouldn’t just benefit New York, it could benefit us
all. Or alternatively, we could all just move to
Sesame Street and start our own democracy. Supper Bernie is registered to vote in the
state of Sesame Street. Sesame Street! How long have you been registered
there? You know, I think about 74 years.
74 years. It's Bernie. Oh my god. I'm going to go talk
to him.