The New York State Board of Elections announced today there will be no New York presidential primary. But voting on June 23 for other offices — one upstate Congressional district and a few state senate and assembly districts — will go on as planned.
State election officials effectuated the change by removing the name of all contenders in the Democratic primary except former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive nominee. The board Democratic co-chair Douglas Kellner said supporters of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders wanted a “beauty contest”.
“What the Sanders campaign wanted is essentially a beauty contest that, given the situation with the public health emergency, seems to be unnecessary and, indeed, frivolous,” Kellner said.
For the Sanders campaign, senior advisor Jeff Weaver issued a statement, saying the BOE decision was “a blow to American democracy.”
“Just last week Vice President Biden warned the American people that President Trump could use the current crisis as an excuse to postpone the November election,” the statement said. “Well, he now has a precedent thanks to New York State.”
“What the Board of Elections is ignoring is that the primary process not only leads to a nominee but also the selection of delegates which helps determine the platform and rules of the Democractic Party.”
“New York has clearly violated its approved delegate selection plan,” the statement said. “If this is not remedied, New York should lose all its delegates to the 2020 Democratic National Convention and there should be a broader review by the Democratic Party of New York’s checkered pattern of voter disenfranchisement.”
The vote originally was scheduled for April 28 had been moved in response to concerns about gatherings during the novel coronavirus. New York Republicans had already called off their primary when no candidate qualified.
Voting by absentee ballot
The Sanders campaign also argued that there were other options the state may have pursued.
“Given that the primary is months away, the proper response must be to make the election safe — such as going to all vote by mail — rather than eliminating people’s right to vote completely.”
Indeed, an effort to appreciably reduce the number of voters showing up in person was already underway. Governor Andrew M. Cuomo had issued an executive order allowing New York voters to use absentee balloting by checking the box for illness as a reason they could not appear in person.
Last week the governor announced a plan to send absentee ballot applications (including postage paid return envelopes) to all New York households.
“We’re making great progress to flatten the curve and decrease the spread of infection, but we don’t know when this pandemic will end and we can’t put democracy on hold,” Cuomo said at the time.
The absentee ballot measure is intended, he said, to ensure that “no New Yorker should have to choose between their health and their right to vote.”