Trusted community groups are one of the keys to unlocking higher participation rates in New York City elections, in some cases even doubling turnout, according to a new report released Monday from a coalition of civic-minded donors.
While there are a series of factors that contribute to low turnout — from election fatigue to misinformation — the GoVoteNYC donor coalition spent $2.45 million on a two-year experiment investing in ways to buck New York City’s low voter turnout trend in state and local elections by literally meeting voters where they are.
Their report assessed what happened when 18 community nonprofits in neighborhoods with a history of low turnout received grants ahead of the 2021 and 2022 elections to help them educate people about voting in their native language, and as part of the other services the organizations already provide in the community.
“We knew that nonprofits were in those neighborhoods already working with people who [political] campaigns deem low propensity voters,” said Martha King, senior program officer at the Charles H. Revson Foundation, one of the coalition’s lead donor organizations. “The experiment was to focus on nonpartisan education and mobilization and use the existing organizations that we have in the city to change the abysmally low turnout.”
Turnout in city elections often tops out at just 25% of eligible voters, and dips even lower in special elections, according to data from the New York City Board of Elections. It’s an issue lawmakers and policy analysts have long struggled to address, and is likely to come into focus again as voters head to the polls this week for an off-cycle June primary election.
Organizations who received funding issued feedback on how they provided support within their respective community to augment their already existing services with voter education. Altogether, members of the coalition contacted 2 million New Yorkers in 2021 and 1.8 million in 2022, according to the report.
The…
Read the full article here
Leave a Reply