NYC Civic Engagement Commission
 
 
NYC Civic Engagement Commission - Democracy NYC - Your Voice, Your Power

Reminder: Make your voice heard in the NYC Speaks survey by February 11th at 11:59PM EST! The survey is available in Spanish, Arabic, Bengali, Korean, Polish, Russian, Chinese, Haitian Creole, French, and Urdu, so spread the word before it closes today. Learn more at nycspeaks.org/.

CHANGE OF PARTY AFFILIATION

The deadline to change a voter’s party affiliation is Monday, February 14th, 2022.

Under state election law, only voters registered in a political party are allowed to vote in their party’s primary election. If you’d like to vote in the upcoming June Primary, now is the time to confirm your party affiliation, which you can do at https://www.nycvotersearch.com/. This June, seats at the federal and state level will be up for election, including: U.S. Senate, Congress, Governor, State Assembly, and State Senate. 

How to confirm or change your party affiliation?

  1. Search your registration status here: https://www.nycvotersearch.com/ or call: 1-888-868-3692
  2. Mail in a paper voter registration form which you can find here: https://vote.nyc/page/register-vote or if you have a DMV account, you can change it online.
  3. You can also find information and assistance at TurboVote

ABSENTEE VOTING

Voters can apply for absentee ballots for these special elections in person at the Board of Elections through Monday, February 14, and ballots have to be mailed or delivered in person by February 15. More information on absentee voting and how to apply for an absentee ballot is available here.

PRIMARY AND GENERAL ELECTION DATES

The State Board of Elections recently published the political calendar for 2022. More dates and information to come, but the Primary Election this year is on June 28, 2022 (early voting: June 18-26) and the General Election is November 8, 2022 (early voting: October 29-November 6). 

COMMUNITY BOARD APPLICATION ARE OPEN

Community Boards applications are now open. To join your community board, you must live, work, or have another interest within your district. The process involves an application through your Borough President's office and an interview. You may also apply to serve on your community board through your Council Member. Each term is 2-years and typically involves one board meeting a month and monthly sub-committee meetings. Find your community board and get involved! To apply to serve on your board, select your borough name to go directly to the application:
image containing the People's Money logo, which consists of the words The people's Money in green contained in a sphere with the outline of dollar bills above the letter i in people's money. The text reads, New York City's Participatory Budgeting, The People's Money, You Decide. Contains the City agency logos of the NYC Civic Engagement Commission, Young Men's Initiative, and Taskforce for Racial Inclusion and Equity with a deep purple and blue gradient background. 

THANK YOU FOR YOUR PARTICIPATION!

The City of New York is investing $1.3M to support recovery in the 33 neighborhoods hardest hit by COVID-19 through an initiative led by the NYC Taskforce for Racial Inclusion and Equity (TRIE), Civic Engagement Commission and Young Men’s Initiative. Over 29,500 residents from 33 communities voted to decide how to spend $40K of public funds in their respective neighborhoods.

Thanks to all NYC residents of the TRIE neighborhoods for voting in this initiative’s participatory budgeting process! Community based organizations, city agencies, public libraries, houses of worship, youth organizations, elected officials, community members, service providers, and more came together to engage thousands of residents and encourage them to vote online, on paper ballots, and over the phone. We engaged hundreds of volunteers through dozens of community events and canvassing shifts. Special thanks to the TRIE Neighborhood Coalitions (TNCs) for their grassroots efforts in ensuring that residents have a voice in how these investments will support their communities and contribute to a more fair recovery.

Voting in this process officially closed on February 8th and the vote results with a list of winning projects will be posted on our Participate platform on February 16th. Sign up on our website to learn about future developments and visit us next week to read more about the proposals and how your neighborhood voted.

LANGUAGE ASSISTANCE ADVISORY COMMITTEE

The NYC Civic Engagement Commission (CEC) is still seeking volunteers who would like to help engage Polish and Italian language communities while serving on the Language Assistance Advisory Committee (LAAC). LAAC members will play an important role in developing and implementing the CEC's poll site language assistance program. Volunteers who are interested can email Julie Kim, Advisor on Poll Site Language Services at jkim@civicengagement.nyc.gov for an application.

OTHER OPPORTUNITIES

To view volunteer and career opportunities with the NYC Civic Engagement Commission, please visit the Get Involved page on the Commission website.

REDISTRICTING

Last week the Legislature passed and Governor Hochul signed into law new congressional and state legislative maps. This followed the failure of the Independent Redistricting Commission to agree on a single set of maps and the Legislature’s rejection of the competing maps it received from the IRC. All of the adopted maps can be found here: https://latfor.state.ny.us/maps/, and an excellent interactive tool created by Steven Romalewski of the CUNY Graduate Center are available here.

The State Senate map adds two new seats to NYC, eliminating two seats upstate, reflecting New York City’s population and demographic shifts over the past decade.

The new maps have already been challenged in court, though it appears unlikely that a court will act to reverse or undo these maps. The petitioning process for candidates to gain access to the ballot is scheduled to begin March 1 (the full 2022 New York political calendar is available here). 

OTHER UPCOMING DATES & EVENTS

Civics Week: March 7-11, 2022:

Civics Week is a week-long celebration of youth voices and civic engagement in an effort to build a more active citizenry. Part of the New York City Department of Education’s Civics for All initiative, Civics Week brings together a coalition of citywide partners including CEC/DemocracyNYC, the Mayor’s Public Engagement Unit (PEU), and civic leaders to help teach students K-12 the skills of civic engagement, the foundations of government and the democratic process, and the importance of registering to vote.

More information about Civics Week and the annual Student Voter Registration Drive to come.

VOICE TO ACTION: PASS IT ON

Finally, if you were not able to join the livestream of the Voice to Action Panel this past Wednesday, February 9th, you can still watch it online .  Share it with a neighbor, family member or friend!

 

 

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