Voter Information: Get Informed & Vote

 

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Voting in NYC: Introduction

Government affects almost every aspect of ​our ​daily lives, including education, affordable housing, public transit, public safety, and so much more.

Year round, The New York Public Library produces workshops, panel discussions, events, and resources focused on providing critical information such as how elections work and the role of elected officials.

New York State Primary Election: June 27, 2023

Your voice matters! Offices on the ballot for the primary election on June 27 include City Council, District Attorney (Bronx, Queens, Staten Island), Civil Court, Delegates to the Judicial Convention, and party positions. Important: You must be registered with a political party to vote in a primary election.

The primary election on June 27 will utilize Ranked Choice Voting; you can rank up to five candidates in order of preference instead of choosing just one. Learn more about Ranked Choice Voting.

Important Dates

(Source and additional information: NYC Votes)

Monday, June 12, 2023: Deadline to update your address

Have you moved since the last election? Notify the NYC Board of Elections as soon as possible by re-registering to vote by June 12.

Monday, June 12, 2023: Absentee ballot request deadline (online)

Find out how to vote by mail or get an absentee ballot.

Saturday, June 17, 2023: Voter Registration Deadline

Register to vote!

Saturday, June 17–Sunday, June 25, 2023: Early Voting

Vote early in person before Election Day! Find your early voting site and hours.

Monday, June 26, 2023: Absentee ballot request deadline (in person)

Deadline to request an absentee ballot in person. Find your borough Board of Elections office.

Tuesday, June 27, 2023: Primary Election Day

Polls are open 6 AM–9 PM. This is also the last day to postmark your absentee ballot or drop it off at a poll site. Find your poll site. Offices on the ballot for the June 27 Primary Election include City Council, District Attorney (Bronx, Queens, Staten Island), Civil Court, Delegates to the Judicial Convention, and party positions.

Tuesday, July 4, 2023: Deadline for Board of Elections to receive absentee ballots

Please note that your ballot must be postmarked no later than June 27 to be valid.

Stay tuned for more information and updates for the 2023 election cycle.

See all election deadlines in New York State.

Register to vote in future elections with NYC Votes.

 

 

Useful Links

Check out the resources below or watch this video to be election ready year round!

 

 

 

Multilingual Information

Explore the NYC Votes website for voter information and resources in the following languages (located in the top right corner of the site): español (Spanish), বাংলা (Bengali), 繁體中文 (Traditional Chinese), and 한국어 (Korean).

The NY State Board of Elections website has information available in the following languages:

 

Register to Vote

Not registered to vote? 

Register via TurboVote 

Find out how to register In Person, By Mail or Online via vote.nyc.

To register to vote in the City of New York, you must:

Sample Ranked Choice Voting ballot that shows various candidate names next to fillable circles and large text at the bottom that reads: Sample Ballot
Sample ballot from the special election of March 23, 2021 (source).
  •     Be a citizen of the United States (includes people born in Puerto Rico, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands).
  •     Be a New York City resident for at least 30 days.
  •     Be 18 years of age before the next election.
  •     Not be serving a jail sentence or be on parole for a felony conviction.
  •     Not be adjudged mentally incompetent by a court.
  •     Not claim the right to vote elsewhere (outside the City of New York).

 

Change Your Party Registration

The New York voter registration form can be used to change your party enrollment from one party to another or to enroll for the first time in a party.

 

Check Your Registration Status

Not sure if you're registered? Check your voter status at the NYC Board of Elections Voter website.

Not sure of your rights? Read up at New York State Voter Bill of Rights.

 

Find Your Polling Place

 

Vote by Mail/Absentee Voting

Can't make it to the polls this year? Request an absentee ballot online, by mail, email or fax. Find out what you need to know here. 

 

 

Ranked Choice Voting

Starting in 2021, New York City has used Ranked Choice Voting for primary and special elections for mayor, public advocate, comptroller, borough president, and city council. Plurality voting, in which the candidate with the most votes wins, continues to be in use for general elections.

Ranked Choice Voting allows people to vote for multiple candidates in order of preference. You can now fill out the ballot saying who is your first choice, second choice, and so on up to your fifth-choice candidate for each position. Learn more about Ranked Choice Voting, including information in Español (Spanish), 中文 (Chinese), 한국어 (Korean), and বাংলা (Bengali).

Frank Collerius and Crystal Chen from NYPL’s podcast, The Librarian Is In, offer a bitesize summary of the key features of Ranked Choice Voting and recap what happened when the Library and Gothamist asked New Yorkers to vote for their favorite NYC book.

 

 

Find Your Districts 
and Current Representatives

Enter your address at Who Represents Me? NYC to find out who your local, state, and federal representatives are.

Federal: The White House • U.S. Senate • U.S. House of Representatives

State: NY State Governor • NY State Attorney General • New York State Comptroller • New York State Senate • New York State Assembly

City-Wide: New York City Mayor • New York City Public Advocate • New York City Comptroller • New York City Council

Boroughs : Bronx Borough President • Bronx District Attorney • Brooklyn Borough President • Brooklyn District Attorney • Manhattan Borough President • Manhattan District Attorney • Queens Borough President • Queens District Attorney • Staten Island Borough President • Staten Island District Attorney

 

Research the Issues

Factcheck.org, a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania, is a nonpartisan, nonprofit consumer advocate for voters that aims "to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics." The site monitors the factual accuracy of what is said by major U.S. political players in the form of TV ads, debates, speeches, interviews, and news releases.

Public Agenda aims to help communities and the nation solve tough problems through research, engagement, and communication.

The Opposing Viewpoints series (available in print and online with your library card) contains information on nearly 5,000 current social topics in the form of primary source documents, statistics, websites, and multimedia.

 

Research the Candidates & Their Stances 

Vote411, the online voters' guide from the League of Women Voters, allows you to type in your address to see the races on your ballot. Candidates' positions can be compared side-by-side, and you may print out your preferences as a reminder and take it with you to the polls on Election Day.

The Internet Archive launched TV News Search and Borrow in 2012 "to enhance the capabilities of journalists, scholars, teachers, librarians, civic organizations, and other engaged citizens" by repurposing closed captioning "to enable users to search, quote and borrow U.S. TV news programs." It contains clips dating from 2009 to the present from over two million recorded programs which can be searched by keyword.

Open States "aggregates legislative information from all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico." Users can enter their address to find out who represents them in their state legislature, what bills their reps have sponsored and how they've voted. 

ProPublica, an independent, nonprofit newsroom has an online tool called Represent where you can learn about your Senators and House Representative—which bills they've sponsored, how they've voted (and how often against their party), statements they've released, and more.

Voterly is a fact-based, nonpartisan website aimed at helping voters make informed decisions. It maintains a database of over 150,000 politicians at the federal, state and local levels including their educational backgrounds, past political offices held and other employment history. Voterly also lets you sign up to monitor your voter registration status (you must create a free account) that sends you alerts if there are any changes in your status.

Know Your Vote gathers nonpartisan data to help "the politically curious become the politically empowered." The website is particularly strong in providing information and contrasting viewpoints on major issues like police reform, the environment, education and health care.

 

Research Campaign Finance and Government Information

The Federal Election Commission "administers and enforces the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA)—the statute that governs the financing of federal elections. The duties of the FEC, which is an independent regulatory agency, are to disclose campaign finance information, to enforce the provisions of the law such as the limits and prohibitions on contributions, and to oversee the public funding of Presidential elections."

OpenSecrets.org: Center for Responsive Politics is "a nonpartisan guide to money's influence on U.S. elections and public policy."

NYOpenGovernment.com is an effort by the New York State Attorney General’s office to "promote citizens' right to know and to monitor governmental decision-making. It allows you to easily access statewide government information, which until now has been scattered or difficult to retrieve."

Follow the Money: The National Institute on Money in State Politics is a "nonpartisan, nonprofit organization revealing the influence of campaign money on state-level elections and public policy in all 50 states. Provides a campaign-finance database and issue analyses." Encourages "transparency and promotes independent investigation of state-level campaign contributions by journalists, academic researchers, public-interest groups, government agencies, policymakers, students, and the public at large."

These resources and information are adapted from Election 2016: Register, Research, and Vote by Lauren Lampasone. 

 

Get Election Ready! Voter Info Session with NYC Votes

Get Election Ready! Voter Info Session with NYC Votes from The New York Public Library on Vimeo.

This information session was livecast on Monday, October 24, 2022.

 

 

Have questions? Contact Ask NYPL for more information.