New York, Dec 19 : Caroline Kennedy wants to be the next senator from New York, but hasn't voted much here since she registered in 1988.

City Board of Elections records show Kennedy failed to vote in many elections since she last registered in the city in 1988 - including votes for the Senate seat she hopes to fill, and numerous Democratic face-offs for mayor, the Daily News reported.

"It doesn't speak to a deep-felt commitment to the electoral process," Baruch College political scientist Doug Muzzio said when told of Kennedy's ballot breakdowns.

Records show Kennedy never pulled the lever for any of her fellow Democrats in city primary races for mayor in 1989, 1993 and 1997 and 2005, when Republicans won three out of four.

She was also AWOL for the primary and general elections in 1994, when Senator Patrick Moynihan was running for re-election to the seat Kennedy hopes to hold.

Aides to Kennedy - who Thursday said she was running in part because this is no time to "sit out" - conceded Thursday night that at times the daughter of the late president has done just that.

Most of the time, she voted, aides said. A review by The Daily News found that of the 38 contested elections since 1988, Kennedy skipped about half, almost all of them primaries.

"Caroline Kennedy recognizes just how important it is to vote and has a very strong record of going to the polls," spokesman Stefan Friedman said. "She has not voted on a handful of occasions over the last two decades." (ANI)