Editorial: Get Out and Vote
In countries around the world, people are fighting and sometimes dying for a right – the right to vote – that we take for granted. They know, all too well, exactly how valuable that right is.
Sadly, in New York, only a portion of those who are eligible are registered to vote, and a smaller number of citizens actually do so – a number that plunges dramatically when the election is a primary.
According to NYU’s Wagner School of Public Service, just 18.4 percent of those eligible to vote cast ballots in the 2009 mayoral election, with only about 11 percent of registered voters voting in the primary, according to Gotham Gazette, which also pointed out that, in 2001, Michael Bloomberg became mayor with the backing of only about 15 percent of the electorate.