NEW YORK STATE SENATE OFFICE OF SENATOR MICHAEL GIANARIS For Immediate Release August 16, 2012 Contact:

Anna Adams-Sarthou 718-728-0960 sarthou@nysenate.gov

STATEMENT FROM SENATOR MICHAEL GIANARIS ON GOVERNOR CUOMOS PROPOSED VOTER REGISTRATION REFORMS Queens, NY I applaud Governor Cuomo for taking an important step towards opening the doors of our democracy to more people. Our voter participation is dreadfully low and online registration will help a great deal. There is still more we can do, such as allowing preregistration, automatically registering citizens and changing registration deadlines. These measures are contained in the Voter Empowerment Act of New York introduced by Assemblyman Kavanagh and myself, and I will continue to push for its enactment until the barriers to voting are minimized as much as possible.

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