citymeetings.nyc

Your guide to NYC's public proceedings.

Q&A

Commissioner Dr. Lisette Nieves and Susan Lerner discuss youth voter engagement and demographic trends among unaffiliated voters

2:14:05

·

3 min

Commissioner Dr. Lisette Nieves asks Susan Lerner about the increasing number of younger people choosing to be independent and how this demographic, which sees closed primaries as a barrier to engagement, factors into Common Cause New York's data and perspective. Lerner refers to Common Cause's 2023 report on unaffiliated voters, noting a distinction between statewide and New York City unaffiliated voters, with a higher proportion of engaged unaffiliated voters outside the city.

Lerner argues that New York City's turnout problem is multifaceted and not solely related to affiliation status; it also depends on how interesting contests are and candidate outreach. She states that changing primary procedures won't necessarily solve the problem of young people feeling unheard by candidates. Lerner also points out that in New York City, a higher percentage of white voters are unaffiliated compared to their proportion in the general voter population, while a much smaller percentage of Black voters are unaffiliated, with Black voters more likely to enroll in a party than any other ethnic group.

Dr. Lisette Nieves

2:14:05

Yeah.

2:14:06

Hi, Susan.

2:14:06

Hi.

2:14:07

My question for you is has a lot to do with so many younger people are choosing to be independent.

2:14:14

Right?

2:14:14

I mean, this is something we could talk about housing.

2:14:17

We could talk about this is where I'm seeing more young people saying something than I've heard before.

2:14:23

And they see it as a barrier to their engagement.

2:14:25

So I'm curious on your data, how are you seeing that breakdown as far as?

Susan Lerner

2:14:30

So, yeah, we looked in '20 my written testimony, I sent in earlier, has a link to our full report where we have a series of charts breaking down the unaffiliated voters on a statewide basis based on 2023.

2:14:48

And what was interesting to me going back and refreshing my recollection is that there is a distinction, at least at that time, between what we were seeing in unaffiliated voters statewide and unaffiliated voters in New York City.

2:15:02

And the metric which stuck out to me was a higher proportion of engaged unaffiliated voters outside of New York City.

2:15:11

That goes to Karen's point.

2:15:12

We have a turnout problem.

2:15:14

It's not necessarily related to whether a voter is affiliated or unaffiliated.

2:15:21

It has to do with often it has to do with if the contest is interesting to the voters, if the candidates have done a good enough job reaching out to a larger number of voters.

2:15:34

Often young people tell us they don't hear from candidates, so they don't feel like they have any investment.

2:15:42

Changing what we do with primaries isn't going to get at that problem.

2:15:47

We have a multifaceted problem.

2:15:49

And when young people feel that the candidate addresses their issues and the candidate's done a good job of making that clear to young people, the percentage of young people who vote rises.

2:16:02

So some of this can be addressed with changing election procedure.

2:16:07

A lot of it is basically more political, and we can keep jiggering with changes that kind of get the voters somewhat confused if they're one on top of the other when we have a more political problem than an actual procedural problem.

2:16:22

And also the thing that's, you know, interesting about the unaffiliated voter in New York City, and this is true statewide, but even so more so in New York City, is it is a a higher percentage of white voters are unaffiliated and a higher a lower purse than you see in the general voter population.

2:16:44

You have a much smaller percentage of black voters who are unaffiliated than in the general voter rolls and a much higher percentage of black voters who choose to enroll in a party than of any other ethnic group.

2:17:00

So, again, you know, I'm glad that the staff is aware of the voting rights questions.

2:17:06

I think that's a very open question, what the impact will be in our multifaceted elections.

← Previous Chapter

Commissioner Julie Samuels and Susan Lerner discuss potential impacts of open primaries on voter turnout, citing Colorado's experience

Next Chapter →

Commissioner Julie Samuels and Susan Lerner discuss prioritizing engagement of independent voters through open primaries

Is citymeetings.nyc useful to you?

I'm thrilled!

Please help me out by answering just one question.

What do you do?

Thank you!

Want to stay up to date? Sign up for the newsletter.