New York Must Hold Democratic Presidential Primary, Judge Rules
- 4 years ago
The primary in June, which had been canceled over concerns about the coronavirus, should still be held, with all qualifying candidates restored to the ballot, a federal judge ruled.
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A federal judge on Tuesday ordered elections officials in New York State to hold its Democratic primary election in June and reinstate all qualifying candidates on the ballot.
The ruling came after the presidential primary was canceled late last month over concerns about the coronavirus.
The order, filed by Judge Analisa Torres of United States District Court, came in response to a lawsuit filed last week by the former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang.
He sought to undo the New York State Board of Elections’ decision in late April to cancel the June 23 contest, a move it attributed to health and safety worries and the fact that the results would not change the primary’s outcome.
The initial move to cancel the presidential primary drew a backlash from the campaign of Senator Bernie Sanders, whose decision to suspend his campaign in April made former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. the presumptive Democratic nominee.
And it sowed confusion around the state; though the statewide presidential primary was canceled, dozens of local elections were not, leaving some candidates and political operatives nervous that voters might presume the entire primary had been called off.
People in every state should have the right to express their preference in the 2020 Democratic primary.
In his lawsuit, Mr. Yang and a group of his delegates contended that their rights had been violated when their names were removed from the presidential primary ballot and the primary was canceled.
And although she acknowledged that protecting the public from the spread of the virus was “an important state interest,”
she wrote that “the Court is not convinced that canceling the presidential primary would meaningfully advance that interest — at least not to the degree as would justify the burdensome impingement” on the plaintiffs’ rights.
Even though he suspended his campaign, Mr. Sanders had repeatedly pleaded for his supporters to vote for him, arguing that the more delegates he could amass,
the greater leverage he would have over policy discussions with Mr. Biden and the Democratic platform.
But progressives around New York also sounded the alarm that canceling the presidential primary could have an outsize impact on their turnout.
He pointed to Mr. Sanders’s 2016 delegates as essential to the party’s overhaul of its superdelegate system as an example.
He also called for the State Legislature in New York to meet and pass a new law vastly expanding vote-by-mail, and to use the primary as a “testing ground for an all-vote-by-mail system in New York State.”
Though the initial decision was made by the independent Board of Elections, and Mr. Cuomo did not directly weigh in during deliberations, liberal groups like Our Revolution, a Sanders-aligned outside group, saw the invisible hand of the governor.
Absent the reversal, Larry Cohen, the chair of Our Revolution, had vowed to wage a floor fight at the Democratic National Convention.
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A federal judge on Tuesday ordered elections officials in New York State to hold its Democratic primary election in June and reinstate all qualifying candidates on the ballot.
The ruling came after the presidential primary was canceled late last month over concerns about the coronavirus.
The order, filed by Judge Analisa Torres of United States District Court, came in response to a lawsuit filed last week by the former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang.
He sought to undo the New York State Board of Elections’ decision in late April to cancel the June 23 contest, a move it attributed to health and safety worries and the fact that the results would not change the primary’s outcome.
The initial move to cancel the presidential primary drew a backlash from the campaign of Senator Bernie Sanders, whose decision to suspend his campaign in April made former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. the presumptive Democratic nominee.
And it sowed confusion around the state; though the statewide presidential primary was canceled, dozens of local elections were not, leaving some candidates and political operatives nervous that voters might presume the entire primary had been called off.
People in every state should have the right to express their preference in the 2020 Democratic primary.
In his lawsuit, Mr. Yang and a group of his delegates contended that their rights had been violated when their names were removed from the presidential primary ballot and the primary was canceled.
And although she acknowledged that protecting the public from the spread of the virus was “an important state interest,”
she wrote that “the Court is not convinced that canceling the presidential primary would meaningfully advance that interest — at least not to the degree as would justify the burdensome impingement” on the plaintiffs’ rights.
Even though he suspended his campaign, Mr. Sanders had repeatedly pleaded for his supporters to vote for him, arguing that the more delegates he could amass,
the greater leverage he would have over policy discussions with Mr. Biden and the Democratic platform.
But progressives around New York also sounded the alarm that canceling the presidential primary could have an outsize impact on their turnout.
He pointed to Mr. Sanders’s 2016 delegates as essential to the party’s overhaul of its superdelegate system as an example.
He also called for the State Legislature in New York to meet and pass a new law vastly expanding vote-by-mail, and to use the primary as a “testing ground for an all-vote-by-mail system in New York State.”
Though the initial decision was made by the independent Board of Elections, and Mr. Cuomo did not directly weigh in during deliberations, liberal groups like Our Revolution, a Sanders-aligned outside group, saw the invisible hand of the governor.
Absent the reversal, Larry Cohen, the chair of Our Revolution, had vowed to wage a floor fight at the Democratic National Convention.