Rep. Bowman, in an Instagram post asking voters to switch parties so they can vote in the democratic primary
By Dan Murphy
Our recent story, 1300 REPUBLICANS SWITCH PARTIES TO VOTE IN DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY FOR CONGRESS-16-NY-BOWMAN VS LATIMER, https://yonkerstimes.com/1300-republicans-switch-parties-to-vote-in-democratic-primary-for-congress-16-ny-bowman-vs-latimer/, has received a great deal of interest and reads. We highlighted how an effort to get voters in the 16th Congressional district in Westchester to switch political parties, and enroll by Feb. 14 to be able to vote in the democratic primary between Rep. Bowman and County Executive George Latimer, resulted in 1300 voters making the change.
The Latimer for Congress campaign had no interaction with, or role in the effort to get voters to switch parties.
But Congressman Bowman, in an Instagram video posted before the deadline, asked voters to join the democratic party so that they could vote for him in the primary.
“New York voters MUST register as a Democrat or Republican to vote in primaries. And in New York, the primaries decide who represents us. If you want to vote for Jamaal Bowman—a progressive fighting for what matters most—you need to register as a Democrat. Click here to go to the NY Elections website, then scroll down to the button for the Online Voter Registration Portal. From there, log in or create a NY.gov account. Already registered? Share this video to spread the word!” wrote Bowman in the Instagram post at this link https://www.instagram.com/reel/C2-acLSOXPe/?igsh=NWV2bWJtZng2c3E4
The Latimer campaign did comment on Bowman’s attempts to push voters to change parties while at the same time, criticizing a nonprofit group for doing the same thing.
“After Congressmember Jamaal Bowman sharply criticized a Westchester non-profit for working to get unaligned voters and voters in other parties to become Democrats to vote in the upcoming primary, it was revealed that Bowman himself was doing the exact same thing. On his website, in social media posts and through calls from his campaign, Bowman directly urged voters to change their enrollment just so they could vote for him in the June Primary. Neither Democrat George Latimer nor his campaign ever engaged in re-registration efforts,” writes the Latimer campaign in a release.
“Bowman himself appeared in this video clip urging voters to change their enrollment, a process critics call “raiding” a political party. Bowman’s campaign had previously criticized re-registration efforts in the press, arguing “Democratic primaries should be decided by members of the Democratic party” despite engaging in the same process themselves.
“This is the level of hypocrisy that voters have sadly come to expect from Congressmember Bowman,” said the Latimer campaign. “The mindset that there should be special rules for Bowman supporters while the same actions by others are somehow wrong is a Trumpian attack on the very concept of democracy. The Congressmember should apologize to the non-profit staff and volunteers he previously denounced,” end of Latimer release.
The non-profit, Westchesterunites.org, initiated a campaign to change voters’ registration in the 16th Congressional district of NY. Westchesterunites.org was launched by TeachActionFund.org.
TeachActionFund.org has organized a voter education and mobilization effort in New York’s 16th District. “The campaign centered around the upcoming Democratic primary – in which only registered Democrats are eligible to partake – and worked on empowering Democratic-leaning independents and those registered with other parties to ensure as many voters as possible can participate in the election, and that the Jewish voice is represented.
“NY-16’s Jewish community rallied behind this effort, with hundreds of volunteers passionately donating their time to canvas, phone bank, and educate their fellow community members about the importance of this election. February 14th was the deadline to re-enroll and we are proud to share that, thanks in large part to our community advocates, our efforts were a huge success – re-enrolling over 1,400 voters!
“However, we are just getting started. This is just part one of our voter education and mobilization effort ahead of the Democratic primary – stay tuned for more from #WestchesterUnites,” writes Teachactionfund.org.
Updated enrollment figures from the NYS Board of Elections show that there are now 271, 611 voters in district 16-NY as of Feb. 21. This is an increase of 2,732 since the last update in November of 2023.
The same data shows republican enrollment in 16-NY down by only 59 voters and independent voters-no party registration-also known as -blanks-increased their enrollment by 825 voters.
Voters enrolled in the Working Families Party in the 16th District, increased by 30; from 1429 to 1459. That number is less than 1% of the 271,611 registered democrats in NY-16.
We are trying to get clarification from the NYS BOE as to where the 3,000+ newly registered democrats came from.
