New York Board of Elections cancels democracy

PIXNews and Gothamist

New York has canceled its Democratic presidential primary originally scheduled for June 23 amid the coronavirus epidemic in an unprecedented move.

The Democratic members of the State's Board of Elections voted Monday to nix the primary.
New York will still hold its congressional and state-level primaries on June 23.

The NYS Board of Elections canceled the contest, in part, because Senator Bernie Sanders has dropped out of the race.

In a statement released on Twitter, the Sanders campaign calls it an “outrage” and a “blow to American democracy.”

When asked if canceling the Democratic primary in New York was “the right move,” Cuomo said during this press conference Monday that he wasn’t going to second guess the Board of Elections

“I know there are a lot of election employees — employees at Board of Elections — who are nervous about conducting elections, but I’ll leave it up to the Board of Elections," he said.

The cancelation generated swift backlash from Sanders supporters and others.

“What happened today is New York’s Democratic Party sent a clear message to Progressives that our voices and our values do not matter,” said Sochie Nnaemeka, state director of the Working Families Party.

She said this takes away people's right to vote for Sanders and allow New York’s voters to send progressive delegates to the convention. 

 Citing COVID-19 health risks to the public and Board staff who would have had to prepare for the election, the state’s two Democratic Commissioners both voted to suspend the contest. Co-chair
Douglas Kellner and Andrew Spano, said the decision was difficult, especially given the “thousands” of emails from Sanders supporters pushing them to keep it. But they noted that a newly passed provision in state election law allowed the body to remove presidential candidates from the ballot if they had suspended their campaign.

“Senator Sanders not only announced he suspended his campaign, but he also announced a public endorsement of Joe Biden,” Kellner said adding, “What the Sanders supporters want is essentially a beauty contest that given the situation with the public health emergency that exists now seems to be unnecessary and indeed frivolous.”

Spano, the former Westchester County Executive, said he just made his mind up this morning. 

Foremost in his mind was the health of Board staff who would be running the election. But he also talked about seeing people sickened after casting ballots in primaries across the country.

“Looking at the situation in Wisconsin and seeing those people on the lines, and having been myself locked up in here, trying to avoid getting any kind of contagion, I've come to the conclusion that we should minimize the number of people on the ballot, minimize the election for the protection of everybody, but give the opportunity to vote in the actual elections for candidates and not have anyone on the ballot just for the purposes of issues at a convention,” said Spano.