Aligning Registration Deadlines Could Boost NYC Voter Participation, Report Posits

NEW YORK - Voter turnout across the 2025 citywide election bucked expectations, from unprecedented levels of participation among newly registered voters in the primary to the highest general election turnout in New York City in over 50 years. Still, despite positive trends, barriers to voter participation remain. Because New York's change of party enrollment deadline falls more than four months before the primary election, and the state's closed primary system requires voters to register with a party to participate, many eligible and interested voters could not cast a ballot in the 2025 primary elections. Shifting the change of party enrollment deadline to fall on the regular voter registration deadline (10 days before the election, and the same day early voting begins) would enable more New Yorkers to participate in local elections.

This analysis comes from the NYC Campaign Finance Board's (CFB) annual Voter Analysis Report, which looks at voter behavior in the previous year's elections to inform recommendations to make elections work better for all New Yorkers.

Read the 2025 Voter Analysis Report here
Read the Executive Summary here

"Voter turnout and registration in the 2025 election cycle hit historic highs, with voters registering at rates more commonly associated with presidential election years, and voters and candidates embracing ranked choice voting in ways we've never seen before. But there's more we can do to make it as easy as possible for more New Yorkers to participate meaningfully in our elections," said Paul S. Ryan, Executive Director of the New York City Campaign Finance Board. "Consolidating the various voter registration deadlines to fall on the same date, right as voting begins, would ensure first-time voters, unaffiliated voters, new voters from other states, and habitual voters can all have an equally smooth experience exercising their rights at the polls." Analyzing the purpose and history underlying New York's existing voter registration laws, other states' registration deadlines and primary structure, and feedback from voters, poll workers, and community-based organizations, the report illustrates the extent to which a February 14 change of party affiliation deadline creates confusion among new and experienced voters alike. The state legislature could amend the election law to move the party enrollment deadline, as well as the change of name and/or address deadline, to line up with the overall voter registration deadline. Doing so would address an inherent asymmetry in how the state's election law treats already-registered voters, who must plan any changes months in advance, versus first-time registrants.

Surge in voter enthusiasm

The 2025 election cycle showed that New York City's local democracy is healthy and capable of engaging voters at levels more commonly associated with federal elections. The Voter Analysis Report digs into the data to show exactly how participation among newly registered and young voters stacked up to previous cycles.

• More than 5.3 million New Yorkers were registered to vote in 2025, marking a registration rate of 94.3%, and an increase of nearly 10 percentage points compared to 2024's rate of 85.5%.
• New voter registrations more than doubled in 2025 compared to 2021, with 260,195 newly registered voters, a 103.8% increase from 127,641 in 2021.
• While the number of new registrants fell short of 2024's presidential-year spike (295,465), 2025 figures reflected engagement levels closer to that of a presidential election year than a typical citywide election year.
  • Newly registered voters turned out at unprecedented rates: 59.6% in the primary and 61.8% in the general election, triple the 2021 turnout among new registrants.
  • Young voters drove this trend, making up nearly two-thirds (64.8%) of all new voter registrations in 2025, up from 54.5% in 2024.
• General election turnout reached 41.6%, far exceeding participation levels in both the 2017 (25.2%) and 2021 (23.3%) city elections.
• New registrants participated at much higher rates than their more established counterparts, showing that they were not only more numerous but also more engaged than newly registered voters in prior city elections.

Ranked choice voting strategy evolves in NYC
Voter data also indicated ranked choice voting (RCV) played a more prominent role in both campaigns' and voters' strategies in 2025 than in the previous cycles in which ranking was an option. In the Democratic mayoral race, the most common sequence that used all five ranks was:

1. Zohran Kwame Mamdani
2. Brad Lander
3. Adrienne E. Adams
4. Zellnor Myrie
5. Michael Blake

This rank, which reflected a combination of endorsements from the Working Families Party and ideologically aligned community-based groups, appeared on 14.2% of all ballots, demonstrating that voters and political organizations used RCV more strategically than in previous years. In 2021, the most common sequence that used all five ranks appeared on just 0.1% of ballots.

• Registered Democrats represent the largest share of voters in New York City, while unaffiliated voters make up the second largest share at 20.6%.
• Unaffiliated voters skew young. Nearly a quarter (24.6%) of the city's unaffiliated voters are under 30, and nearly half (48.4%) are under 40, a pattern consistent with 2024. The share drops among older age groups, 10.5% are 60-69, and just 3.6% are 80 or older.
• Unaffiliated turnout jumped in 2025 but still lags behind party-affiliated voters. In the 2025 general election, unaffiliated voters turned out at a rate of 29.6%, up 18.2 points from 2021, but still lower than turnout of voters registered with a political party.
  

More detailed statistics and analysis can be found in the Voter Analysis Report here. For an in-depth analysis of the 2025 matching funds program, stay tuned for the Post-Election Report in September 2026.

About the New York City Campaign Finance Board
The Campaign Finance Board is a nonpartisan, independent city agency that empowers New Yorkers to have a greater impact on their elections. Its mission is to make local democracy more open, transparent, and equitable by removing barriers to participation. The CFB makes it easier for New Yorkers to vote, meaningfully support candidates for city office, and run for office themselves. NYC Votes is the voter engagement initiative of the NYC Campaign Finance Board. The program focuses on reaching New York City voters, especially those who are underrepresented in the electoral process, and equipping them with the resources they need to participate in our elections.