New York has more than 3 million voters lacking proof of identity: analysis

The state of New York has more than 3 million individuals on its voter rolls missing key identifying documents to prove their identities, according to a recent analysis.

The Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF), found that 3.1 million New Yorkers, roughly 23% of New York's 13.3 million voters, lacked either a driver's license or Social Security number to prove their identity.

PILF asserted that Personally Identifiable Information (PII) was an integral tool in maintaining clean voter rolls. Incidents such as one moving and registering to vote in a different location or the death of the voter are potential scenarios that can lead to duplications on the voter rolls should there be no PII to help election officials account for such developments.

PILF further highlighted that New York was far and away the outlier in terms of the percent of registered voters lacking PII. Much of the issue seems to stem from the New York City/Long Island area, with Nassau, Kings, Queens, New York, and Westchester Counties all claiming spots in the top ten municipalities with the most voters without PII.

The report comes ahead of the November midterm elections during which New York faces both a hotly contested gubernatorial race between GOP nominee Lee Zeldin and incumbent Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul and a string of close congressional elections that could decide the fate of the House of Representatives. Election integrity watchdogs have endeavored to convince Albany to clean up its voter rolls, though they have thus far had little success.