A typo sank plans by New York state lawmakers to pass a bill implementing automatic voter registration in the state, HuffPost is reporting.
The bill would have permitted New Yorkers to register to vote by interacting with certain state agencies like the Department of Motor Vehicles, according to the website. The bill informed those who are not citizens that registering to vote was a crime. But it told them not to check the box opting out of voting. The added word could have led to them wrongly registering to vote, HuffPost reported.
The bill was passed by the State Senate, but it was recalled before a vote could be taken in the Assembly. The legislative session ended before a vote could be taken on a corrected bill.
Lawmakers said it will be passed in their next session, which begins in January. They said it will be implemented by 2021 — the same time frame as if it had passed this year.
Experts claim automatic registration will increase voter turnout in New York.
"The big impact is you're going to see higher registration rates," said Perry Grossman, Voting Rights Project attorney at the New York Civil Liberties Union. "And we are going to see the registration gap — between whites and minorities, high-income and low-income, native-born citizens and naturalized-citizens — close."
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.