Thread: New York’s Upcoming Primary Is ‘Closed Shut’ To Certain Voters

NYC schools push to get 20,000 teen students to register to vote in 2016

BY BEN CHAPMAN
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Tuesday, March 15, 2016, 1:39 PM

JEFFERSON SIEGEL/NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Schools Chancellor Carmen Farina speaks during a City Hall press conference announcing Student Voter Registration Day.


City schools are getting out the vote this year.

Volunteer registration workers are targeting more than 20,000 teen students at 60 public schools across the city Friday in a push to sign up new voters.

Organizers at the NYC Campaign Finance Board say this year’s second annual Student Voter Registration Day is more than twice the size of last year's drive, when 2,000 public school students from 25 schools registered to vote.

“New Yorkers will be making crucial choices in the 2016 elections,” said NYCCFB director of voter assistance Onida Coward Mayers at a press conference on the steps of City Hall Tuesday.

“It is imperative that we hear the voices of our youngest voters,” she said.

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2016 presidential candidates

Schools across the city will be setting aside time Friday to educate high school seniors on the voting process and sign eligible students up to vote.

Any U.S. citizen who is 18 or will turn 18 by Dec. 31 can register to vote this year.

Voters must be 18 by Nov. 8 to cast a ballot in the 2016 presidential elections, however.

At Tuesday’s press conference, city schools boss Carmen Fariña called Student Voter Registration Day a boon to democracy.

“Our democracy can only exist when we have informed and active citizens — and that is why we want our students to understand how important voting is,” Fariña said.

© CHRIS KEANE / REUTERS/REUTERS

Any U.S. citizen who is 18 or will turn 18 by Dec. 31 can register to vote this year. Voters must be 18 by Nov. 8 to cast a ballot in the 2016 presidential elections, however.


NYC Campaign Finance Board officials said that just 11% of registered voters aged 18-29 cast ballots in the city’s 2013 mayoral elections, compared to 25% of all registered voters.

Council Member Helen Rosenthal, who spearheaded the city's Student Voter Registration Day pilot program in 2015, said many issues faced by high school students are decided by elected officials.

"Every year is an election year, and voting in state and local elections matters," Rosenthal said.

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/...icle-1.2565129

Oh wow, that's really a shame. There's probably a lot of voters who would like to become Republicans to vote for Trump.

Opinion:
​
The 'Trump Effect' in New York? More people registering to vote him out

By Eliana Fernandez
Published April 07, 2016 Fox News

• 
  People protesting against Donald Trump in Bethpage, New York, Wednesday, April 6, 2016. (AP)
  

For much of my childhood, I lived in Ecuador without my parents. It was very hard to grow up that way, because I was the youngest of my siblings, and when I got bullied, I didn’t have my parents there to stand up for me.

When I moved to New York just before I turned 15, we got to live together as a family for the first time. I felt angry at first. I wondered why they’d left me behind — maybe they didn’t love me enough?

I can’t vote this year, but you can bet that immigrants like me in New York are going to make sure that eligible relatives and neighbors like my sister-in-law register and head to the polls. For that, I say: thank you Donald.

- Eliiana Fernandez

Years later, as a mother who wants what’s best for her two children, I understand why my parents did what they did. They wanted to give us a better education and future than I could have had in Ecuador. And their difficult decision paid off: my brother, sister, and I have degrees in math, engineering, and sociology respectively. I was on the Dean’s List most semesters in college.

Still, their decision could not fix an out-of-date immigration system. Despite our best efforts, there has been no way for us to regularize our immigration status. I lived on Long Island for over 12 years as an undocumented immigrant, until 2012, when President Obama announced his Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. I applied as soon as I could and obtained relief, which has since protected me from being separated from my U.S.-born children.

DACA also changed my life because it enabled me to get the social work job that I wanted to help others and pay for my own education. Every day now, I work to connect people with social programs and motivate them to pursue an education and a brighter future.

That’s why it’s been so shocking to hear Donald Trump and other Republican presidential candidates pledging to end DACA if they win the presidency. Messrs. Trump, Cruz, and Kasich have all opposed DACA and the President’s more recent immigration relief for immigrant parents (DAPA), and they’ve rejected any immigration reform that includes a path to citizenship for 11 million undocumented immigrants like me. What’s worse, other candidates have supported Trump’s call for mass deportation — not to speak of the nasty words that Trump is using to stereotype my community, like “criminals” and “rapists.”

It leaves me wondering: Why do these men want to tear our families apart and prevent immigrants like me from contributing even more to our economy?

It also leaves me, like many others in my community, feeling more motivated to get out the vote this year.

I still can’t vote, even though my two children are US citizens. I wish I could become a citizen and cast my ballot this year to be a part of holding politicians accountable for calling us names and endorsing proposals that would devastate our families.

But, though I can’t vote, I know that this election will be an awakening moment for my community to raise its voice and be heard. Latinos and immigrants like me are ready to make sure that all of our neighbors who are eligible both register and get to the polls.

Last year, I led a team of more than 20 young people to get out the vote. It was rewarding to see young people becoming more involved and wanting to make a change in their community.

And these efforts worked: The public voter file showed us after the election that thousands of the people we engaged did, indeed, cast their ballots.

This year, all the anti-immigrant language from Republicans will motivate our community, and we’ll register and mobilize thousands of voters here in New York. With more than four million immigrants in New York, and our share of the vote increasing in every election cycle, I know that strong outreach in our communities will have an impact on the general elections for Congress, State legislature, and President.

I can see our community’s power growing even within my own family. This month, we’re celebrating my sister-in-law’s recent naturalization; she will be able to vote for the first time in 2016. Like the increasing number of legal permanent residents who are becoming citizens and registering to vote, she brings hope to our family, because we know that she can join the chorus speaking up for us in November.

I can’t vote this year, but you can bet that immigrants like me in New York are going to make sure that eligible relatives and neighbors like my sister-in-law register and head to the polls.

For that, I say: thank you Donald.

http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/opi...-vote-him-out/

Sorry to say, I rarely voted and paid little attention to politics. That is until I found this site and others like it. In 2014, I registered and voted for the first time in years. I voted Republican. Now that I'm a Trump supporter, I re-registered as a Republican. He got my vote in the FL primary. I'm sure there are many more like me.

Now this is pretty smart. I re-registered to become a Republican to support Trump. I have yet to confirm it went through, but I'm way ahead of the deadline to register. It makes sense to expect voters to make party changes way ahead of the actual election to prevent people such as myself hopping to a party to support a candidate. But if the political parties were really worried about party hopping, then they would get rid of the state run primaries altogether and run the nominations themselves.

"It leaves me wondering: Why do these men want to tear our families apart and prevent immigrants like me from contributing even more to our economy?"

Number One...you are not an immigrant...you are an illegal alien, undocumented migrant and criminal trespasser.

It leaves US TAXPAYERS wondering why your MOTHER & FATHER tore your own family apart. Ran like cowards, left their children, and illegally entered the United States! Leaves ME wondering why your own President does not step up to the plate, stop the corruption in YOUR Country and help his own citizens! Leaves ME wondering why you come to our Country and mouth off...but do not have the guts to go back to your Country and mouth off for your rights and freedom at your President's doorstep!

No DACA, No DAPA, No Amnesty, No Undocumented Migrants, No Anchor Baby, No Freebies.

Do not detain...deport within 24 hours. All minors caught at the border should be handed over into the care and custody of their Embassy for deportation. All others should be sent directly to our military base, processed and loaded up on military C130s and deported.