Voter rolls are up in New York City – fueled partly by registration drives.
Enrollment surged to about 4,480,000 by the Oct. 11 registration deadline – a 300,000 increase over last year, according to the city Board of Elections.
Statewide, nearly 11,850,000 people are registered to vote – 600,000 more than last year, according to the state Board of Elections.
More than half of the newly registered voters in the city signed up in the month before the deadline, the city Board of Elections said.
Staten Island, the city’s least populated borough, reported the highest number of people registered between Sept. 10 and Oct. 11: 59,873.
Brooklyn was second with 34,594, followed by Queens’ 28,539. The figure was 22,148 for Manhattan, and 18,875 for the Bronx.
The historic nature of the election and aggressive registration drives are widely credited with spurring increase in local voter rolls.
Kathryn Castellano, a board member of the Youth Voter Collective, a non-profit that encourages young people to participate in the electoral process, said students are excited about the presidential race.
“That’s where so much buzz is, anytime you’re on college campus. We’re also getting a lot of high school students who are turning 18 and are super excited to be voting for the first time,” said Castellano, 26, whose group ran a registration drive.
