Last Tuesday, May 3, 25 volunteers from Dominicanos USA participated in the third annual Voter Day by NYC Votes and the New York City Campaign Finance Board. The day consisted of 200 volunteers from organizations all over the State of New York heading to Albany for meetings with New York State lawmakers to discuss voting reform.

FIGHTING FOR VOTING REFORM

The topic of discussion with the lawmakers was voting reform in order to make voting and voter registration easier for New Yorkers. Because of our experience in voter registration, voter mobilization, and voter protection, DUSA is well aware of the importance of reforming our election laws in order to facilitate voting, especially for Dominican-Americans and other Latinos who face additional barriers to voting.

A DAY OF ACTION

During the course of the day volunteers from DUSA and the Vote Better NY campaign met with lawmakers and asked them to support legislation enacting online voter registration and registration updates, pre-registration for 16 and 17 year olds, early voting, and ballot reform to make ballots easier for voters to understand. Some of the lawmakers even represented the same neighborhoods that DUSA has been working in for the past 2 years and knew of our work and the issues we care about, making it easier for them to relate to these reforms. This experience was, for our New York team, an opportunity to see the legislative process up close and be active participants in our democracy, while also taking steps to promote easier voting, which we know affects our community especially.

Check out pictures from our Albany trip below!

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