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TESTIMONY
Testimony by John Kaehny, Executive Director of Reinvent Albany, on voter affiliation data and election reform recommendations
1:40:40
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5 min
John Kaehny, Executive Director of Reinvent Albany, testifies on voter turnout and party affiliation in New York City, presenting new data from Professor John Mollenkopf.
He highlights that younger voters, regardless of sex or race, are significantly more likely to be unaffiliated, with a particularly large gap between young and older Black voters. Kaehny recommends several electoral reforms, prioritizing even-year elections, followed by semi-open primaries, a top-four RCV general election for citywide offices (based on an RCV open primary), and then a top-two general election (based on an RCV open primary), reflecting perceived political viability and risk/benefit.
- New data shows younger voters are more likely to be unaffiliated with political parties, with notable differences across racial groups (e.g., young Black voters show a very high rate of non-affiliation compared to older Black voters).
- Men are generally more likely to be unaffiliated than women, with Asian men being the least likely to be in a party.
- Reinvent Albany's top recommendation is moving to even-year elections.
- Other recommendations, in order of preference, include semi-open primaries, then top-four RCV general elections for citywide office after an RCV open primary, and finally top-two general elections after an RCV open primary.
John Kaehny
1:40:40
I'm John Caney, executive director of Reinvent Albany.
1:40:43
We advocate for transparent, accountable New York government and fact based public policy.
1:40:49
We've drafted and passed dozens of city and state laws, and government officials and journalists often consult with our staff experts.
1:40:57
So this commission's preliminary staff report emphasized many long standing concerns about very low voter turnout, embarrassing low, turnout, and noted that 1,000,000 New York City voters are unaffiliated and can't vote in party primaries, including the New York City Democratic, party primary, which is extremely important for offices like the mayor.
1:41:21
As an aside, I'd note that a person who's enrolled by automatic voter registration, AVR, which has been long sought by voting advocates, is not enrolled in a political party.
1:41:34
It's up to them to reach out to their local board of elections to reregister, and that's an important thing that we should think about when thinking about unaffiliated unaffiliated voters.
1:41:43
So today, Reinvent Albany is sharing professor John Mollenkopf's new estimate of the party affiliation of New York City voters by age, sex, and racial group, which he calculated at our request and we've provided to committee staff.
1:41:58
Professor Mollenkopf is the director of the Center for Urban Research at CUNY Grad Center.
1:42:02
He's known to many of you.
1:42:04
He based his estimate on data from voter rolls and the American Community Survey of the census, And he's gonna produce an update using more sophisticated statistical methods later in 2025.
1:42:16
A detailed description of, the professor's methodologies and sources are in Reinvent Albany's written testimony.
1:42:22
We encourage all of the commission to look at the actual data.
1:42:26
It's pretty easy to look at.
1:42:28
It's clearly presented.
1:42:31
But I'm here to highlight a couple of things.
1:42:34
One, regardless of sex or race, younger voters are significantly more likely to be unaffiliated with the political party than older voters.
1:42:45
Here's an interesting thing.
1:42:47
Black eighteen to twenty nine year olds are more likely than white eighteen to twenty nine year olds in New York City to be unaffiliated.
1:42:56
So black eighteen to twenty nine year olds are 27.3% unaffiliated versus white same age group, 25.5%.
1:43:07
Men are far more likely to be are are more likely to be unaffiliated than women, with Asian men the least likely to be in the party followed by white, Hispanic, and black men.
1:43:19
Young women are more likely than older women to be unaffiliated.
1:43:24
Now the gap between the share of voters age 18 29 and seventy to seventy nine who are unaffiliated differs widely by race.
1:43:34
We've included a chart that Steph can show you.
1:43:38
But by far, the biggest difference within a group is between young and older black voters.
1:43:46
The share of eighteen to twenty nine year old male black voters that's unaffiliated is 294% higher than seventy to seventy nine year old, male black voters.
1:44:01
The share of eighteen to twenty nine year old black female voters that are unaffiliated is 318% higher than seventy to seventy nine year old female black voters.
1:44:15
By comparison, unaffiliated young white male voters are only 78% higher than older white male unaffiliated voters.
1:44:27
The share of unaffiliated younger white female voters is about 67% higher than older white female unaffiliated voters.
1:44:35
So you can see that there are a lot of new and interesting insights about New York City voters and what party they're choosing and whether they're even choosing a a party that this commission should be taking a look at.
1:44:50
And happy to discuss that more, but the table that we've provided your staff and the data make it much clearer.
1:45:01
Now
Sharon Greenberger
1:45:01
I think
John Kaehny
1:45:01
your yes.
Sharon Greenberger
1:45:03
If you can if you can quickly finish up.
1:45:06
A few more seconds.
John Kaehny
1:45:06
Quickly finish up.
1:45:07
Now, if we had our druthers, we choose a vote one system like San Francisco has with no primary, that would require state action, legislation which we do not see as politically viable and which this commission should avoid.
1:45:22
Instead, we recommend the following.
1:45:25
Even your elections, semi open primary, a top four RCV general election for citywide offices based on an RCV open primary, and top two general election based on RCV open primary.
1:45:38
We comment on all of those, and that's the order that we believe, reflects the political reality of today and the benefit and risk of different approaches.
1:45:49
Thank you.