New York Allows 17-Year-Olds to Apply for Early Mail Ballots

People vote in a polling station in New York City during the state presidential primary election on April 2, 2024. (Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty Images)

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has signed into law seven election-related bills that, among other changes, allow teenagers to preregister to vote before they turn 18 so they will be automatically added to the voter rolls when they come of age.

The bills received the governor’s signature on Aug. 6 at an event commemorating the 59th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The governor said the laws will improve voter protections for New Yorkers and make it easier for them to vote.

The first bill, Senate Bill 6735, builds on a 2020 law that allows New York citizens ages 16 and 17 to preregister to vote at their local clerk’s office or Department of Motor Vehicles and be added to the voter rolls when they turn 18 without needing a separate trip.

Under the new law, preregistered 17-year-olds who will turn 18 by Election Day may also apply for an absentee or early mail ballot. Like every other registered voter in the Empire State, they may apply online, apply in person at their local clerk’s office, or designate another person to deliver the application for them. Early mail ballot applications are due 10 days before Election Day, or the day before the election for those who plan to receive the ballot in person.

Senate Bill 9837, the second bill that Hochul signed, is meant to help voters fix their mail ballots if they have missing or mismatched signatures, a process called ballot curing. Thirty states allow ballot curing or other remedies to correct an error on a ballot, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Existing New York law already requires election officials to notify voters and allow them to correct signature errors. The new ballot curing law further mandates that the notice must include a return envelope, with postage paid, for the voter to return a signature verification statement.

Under the previous ballot curing procedure, a voter’s signature verification had to be received by the election board no later than seven business days after the board notified the voter of the need to cure the ballot or the day before the election, whichever was later. The new law significantly expands that time frame, allowing the cured ballot to be received by 5 p.m. on the seventh day following the election.

Other Changes

Senate Bill 5943 formalizes how races are ordered on the ballot. Starting this year, the presidential and gubernatorial races will be listed first, followed by other federal, state, county, and local races.

Candidates in nonpartisan and judicial races will appear only on the second half of the ballot.

A fourth bill allows New York voters to serve as poll watchers at any polling place if they have a license to practice law. The previous policy allowed voters to watch polls only in the cities or counties in which they reside.

The rest of the bills contain technical changes, such as moving the date of the meeting of New York’s electors to comply with the 2022 federal Electoral Count Reform Act.

The new laws come as New York’s highest court weighs a challenge of a law that allows any registered voter to apply for an early mail ballot.

The challenge is led by Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) and includes other Republican lawmakers, who argue that changes as dramatic as no-excuse mail-in voting for all may be implemented only through a constitutional amendment. Lower courts have dismissed that argument, ruling that the Legislature has the constitutional authority to make those changes.

New York voters rejected a proposal to expand mail voting through a proposed constitutional amendment in 2021.