There is a real possibility that if the rules for primary elections were standardized across the country, and people could choose to vote in either primary and independent voters were allowed to participate in the process in all states, Bernie Sanders would be the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee and Hillary Clinton would be playing catch-up. But political parties are not run by the state government, and they make their own rules. It turns out, however, that the rules made by the political parties and also the rules made by the government are badly out of date, and have contributed to New York State having one of the lowest voter participation rates in the country.

In this latest primary contest, only 19.7% of eligible voters participated in the process; that’s the second lowest in the country, ahead of only Louisiana. Performance in recent general elections has not been much better in recent years. In the 2014, the turnout in the state was 29%. In New York, as in most of the rest of the country, voter participation has been on the decline for many years. Back in the governor’s race in 1974, and astounding 75.4% of eligible voters joined in the vote, the most basic of act of democratic participation.

The answer to reversing this trend and moving it in the opposite direction, in the eyes of many analysts, is to update the voting laws, with a goal of making it easier to register and easier to vote.

Many states have already adopted important changes, and others are taking new measures. Last week, on April 28, Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin signed a bill that will allow for automatic voter registration through the Vermont Department of Motor Vehicles and other state agencies. Three other states have already adopted such legislation: Oregon, California and West Virginia. New York lawmakers have in the past shown little interest in fixing the broken voting laws, but with the problems in this year’s primary showing just how badly the system is failing, perhaps they will be nudged into action.

Another problem that surfaced in this election was the ridiculously long deadline for changing one’s registration; if a voter wanted to switch parties, that paperwork had to have been filed back in October of 2015, a full six months before the ballots were cast, and new voters would have had to register about a month in advance. With this rule in place, New York is the only state in the country that does not allow voters to change registration in the same year in which an election is held. Many states are moving to make it easier to switch or to register to vote; officials in 15 states have adopted policies that allow—or will soon allow—for same-day registration.

Early voting is another practice that is being adopted by states across the country to make it easier to participate. Voters in 37 states have the opportunity to cast a vote in person in advance of the day of the election, and no reason is required. In 27 states, there is an opportunity to vote by mail with an absentee ballot and, again, no reason is required to make use of this type of voting. New York is one of 20 states that have absentee voting, but an excuse is required.

All of these issues and others would be positively addressed if the state legislature passed the Voter Empowerment Act (VEA), which was first introduced in the state senate in 2015. It would promote more pubic engagement in the democratic process by creating an online voter registration system on the New York State Board of Elections (BOE) website, which would also make the process more efficient by eliminating the need for BOE staff to enter names and addresses manually into the state voter database, which is currently how it’s done.

The VEA would also require that residents who consent to be automatically registered to vote when they deal with various government agencies such as the State University of New York, public assistance agencies and the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles.

The VEA would also allow voters to change their party affiliation up to 10 days before any primary, special, or general election and would allow the preregistration of 16- and 17-year-olds, who would then be automatically registered when they turn 18.

Legislation to update the state’s voter registration laws has been repeatedly introduced in Albany, but lawmakers have refused to act on them. With the problems experienced in the recent primary fresh in their minds, now would be a good time for New York State lawmakers to consider and pass the VEA.

As the New York City Campaign Finance Board says (tinyurl.com/hm8n8fw), “These commonsense solutions would bring our voter registration system into the 21st century, and help roughly 1.7 million eligible, but unregistered, New Yorkers get onto the rolls. It’s time for New York to enact this sensible solution. Join our effort to modernize elections in New York: sign the Vote Better NY petition (tinyurl.com/zlhrxes) today.”