Voter registration drive June 22

MILLERTON — Becoming a voter just became easier. NorthEast-Millerton Library staff members are joining with volunteers to help ensure that any of their fellow citizens who would like to make their voices heard will have a chance to do so by holding a Voter Registration Drive at the Library.

Library Director Rhiannon Leo-Jameson said as people discuss various issues in the library, “We found that a lot of people are not necessarily happy — on both sides of the fence — with their government. At different times people complain that their government doesn’t reflect their choices about what’s best for their community. But at the same time we’ll hear that they’re not registered to vote.”

The library’s solution to the problem is its first voter registration drive, to be held on Saturday, June 22, from noon to 3 p.m. Weather permitting, the registration will take place in the highly visible Memorial Reading Garden in front of the library with the project moving inside in case of rain. If citizens are unable to register that day, library staff members will also be available any time the library is open to help with the process. 

Leo-Jameson said the event is open to any resident of New York state and “gives them an opportunity to register to vote without having to really figure out the way to do it. This way they can just come to the library and we can help them.”

Any resident who has relocated but not yet filed a change of address form or wishes to change parties may also do so at the event.

Leo-Jameson emphasized that this registration drive, which she hopes will bring at least 50 new voters to the polls, is strictly nonpartisan. 

“We don’t care which party you’d like to join or if you’d like to join any party at all, because you don’t have to,” she said. “We just want people to become more engaged.”

Registrants, with the help of the volunteers, will have their choice of filling out paper forms by hand or using online registration forms that will then be printed. Each is available in both English and Spanish, but whichever is used, the form must be signed. Registrants may mail their form individually to the Dutchess County Board of Elections at  47 Cannon St., Poughkeepsie, NY 12601 or give it to a volunteer, who will submit it for them.

According to the form, in order to vote, a person must “be a United States citizen; be 18 years old by Dec. 31 of the year in which you file this form (note: you must be 18 years old by the date of the general, primary or other election in which you want to vote); resident of this state and the county, city or village for at least 30 days before the election; not be in prison or on parole for a felony conviction (unless parolee pardoned or restored rights of citizenship); not be adjudged mentally incompetent by a court; and not claim the right to vote elsewhere.”

Once registered, voting is generally done in person at a local polling location or by absentee ballot, but special arrangements can also be made for victims of domestic violence whose information is kept confidential. 

There is never any charge for either registration or voting. No documents are needed for identification, but registrants will need to either supply their driver’s license number or the last four digits of their social security number or check a box that indicates they have neither.

Applications are also available by calling 1-800-FOR-VOTE, or by other means identified at the Board of Election’s website, www.elections.ny.gov/votingregister.