According to her voter registration, obtained online via the New York State Board of Elections, Lena Dunham is not, at present, a member of any political party. And good for her! [Story updated with response from Dunham via Twitter below!]
But it complicates her endorsement of a New York City comptroller candidate.
Dunham has, on Twitter and last night in person, been very vocal on behalf of Scott Stringer, who's running against former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer. But since she's not a registered Democrat, Dunham will not be able to vote for Stringer in the primary.
According to the website of the New York State Board of Elections, Dunham, as of today, is registered to vote, independent of party, in her parents' Tribeca neighborhood (her registration as of today is screenshotted here). She, unlike registered Democrat and fellow Stringer endorser Scarlett Johansson, will need to hustle to register to vote for the candidate she endorsed at a hip gathering last night -- she has until Aug. 16.
Stringer has explicitly campaigned for the youth vote in New York with endorsements from folks, like Dunham, who wouldn't necessarily be expected to weigh in on local elections. (Her last endorsement, of Barack Obama for reelection, was colored by a raunchy, punny ad and the revelation she hadn't bothered to vote in 2004, when she was eligible.) Stringer's spokeswoman, Audrey Gelman, is a college friend of Dunham's and has appeared on "Girls." Dunham's endorsement (the first thing she did after meeting him, she said, was "Google the word ‘comptroller.’ Then I told him I’d do anything to help his campaign") is the sort of thing that generates buzz and ink -- even if she herself isn't, right now, able to commit her vote.
We've reached out to Gelman and Dunham and will update this post if they get in contact.
UPDATE: Dunham notes via Twitter that she had been a registered independent until recently; presumably her registration with the state Board of Elections will denote her status as a registered Democrat by the time of the primary election!
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