I just received a copy of the Nonprofit Voter Engagement Network’s latest report, America Goes to the Polls: A Report on Voter Turnout in the 2008 Election. (You can see some of the data here.)

As you have probably already heard, voter turnout increased significantly with the 2008 presidential election. The report shows that as a nation, we’re back up to the high voter participation levels (62%) that we saw in the 1960s. Voter turnout grew in 36 states plus the District of Columbia; and nationwide, the youth turnout, African American turnout, and Latino turnout all increased. As the first sentence of the report reads, “Voting is groovy again.”

But what about New York state? Voter turnout only increased 1.3% since the 2004 election. (This is low, considering most states had at least a 2% gain, and the biggest increases—seen in North Carolina, Virginia, and South Carolina—were about 10%.) With only 58.2% of eligible New Yorkers casting a ballot, we’re ranked a lowly 43 out of all 50 states plus D.C.—that’s even lower than our ranking of 36 in the 2004 election.

Why is New York’s participation rate so low? Well, we’re not a swing state; we didn’t have a high-profile ballot question to vote on; we also didn’t have early voting or Election Day registration, both of which were major trends leading to higher turnout in other states.

Do you have any other theories? Given all the reasons for low turnout in New York, how do you think it could be increased?