Press Releases

An Update on the Fight to Strengthen Our Democracy in New York

We won’t sugarcoat this.

The legislative session in Albany has come to a close, and the Governor and lawmakers are heading home without delivering on their promises to strengthen our democracy.

Last night, the New York legislature failed to pass automatic voter registration, foregoing the chance to dramatically increase voter participation by registering over a million new voters. They also failed to pass bold campaign finance reform and have punted that decision to a yet-to-be-formed commission.

We’re angry — and disappointed — but also incredibly grateful for the commitment of progressives like you to achieving these historic reforms. Over the past six months, thousands of Stand Up America community members in New York state made their voices heard and demanded action to repair our broken political system. We flooded Albany with phone calls, tweets, emails, and other grassroots actions to demand badly needed reforms that would increase voter participation and decrease the influence of big money in Albany.

We did secure some wins this session, like passing early voting. But the most critical thing we did this year was create undeniable momentum behind voting and campaign finance reforms, and we got closer to these bold changes than ever before.

The fight to strengthen our democracy and repair our broken political system is far from over. This week, lawmakers promised to make automatic voter registration a priority when they return to Albany—and we will hold them to that promise.

We’ll be in touch with where the fight goes from here.

Thank you for making your voice heard — and thank you, as always, for standing with us.

Stand Up America