Federal Judge Analisa Torres ruled last week that New York State will indeed have a democratic presidential primary on June 23. Torres decision overturns the move by the NY Democratic Party to cancel their presidential primary two weeks ago.
“The removal of presidential contenders from the primary ballot not only deprived those candidates of the chance to garner votes for the Democratic party’s nomination … it deprived Democratic voters of the opportunity to elect delegates who could push their point of view in that forum,” wrote Judge Torres, who additionally called the NY Dems decision, “authoritarian and illegal”.
Sanders supporters were outraged at the attempt to halt the presidential primary, even if Sanders and Yang had ‘suspended’ their campaigns. Former Presidential candidate Andrew Yang filed the lawsuit, and now Sanders, Yang and nine other democrats, Michael Bennet, Joe Biden, Michael Bloomberg, Pete Buttigieg, Tulsi Gabbard, Amy Klobuchar, Deval Patrick, Tom Steyer and Elizabeth Warren, will appear on the ballot.
“Senator Sanders wishes to remain on the ballot, and is concerned that his removal from the ballot would undermine efforts to unify the Democratic Party in advance of the general election,” Malcolm Seymour, an attorney representing the Sanders campaign, wrote at the time to Andrew Spano, the commissioner for the New York State Board of Elections. Andy Spano is the former Westchester County Executive.
Judge Torres rejected the argument that holding the Presidential primary would be costly and put people’s health at risk because the state was mailing out absentee ballot.
Peekskill City Councilwoman Vanessa Agudelo, a Sanders supporter, wrote, “As a Bernie Delegate running to represent the working class people of #CD17 who desparately need Medicare4All, a Green New Deal, workplace democracy & a true people’s bailout, AND as one of the thousands* of volunteers across the state who worked countless hours in the winter to collect petition signatures, organize events and register new voters in order build collective consensus/awareness around these issues, I find this consideration to be a disgraceful attack on our democracy.
“Biden may be the presumptive nominee but New York State still has the right to make our voices heard and have our vote in November earned; we deserve to do so by voting for the democratic candidate and/or delegates that can leverage their numbers at the Democratic National Convention to influence the party platform in a direction that serves OUR interests.
“Cancelling the primary is a slap in the face to so many of us that worked hard to make a case for our candidate, their policies and the electoral process as a whole. I personally was able to register over 2 dozen people, half of whom were over the age of 55, with the caveat that they’d be able to cast their first vote for a candidate/platform that actually speaks to their day to day struggles. These are the people whom we need more than ever to be an active part of our civic process and yet our leaders continue to leave them behind, disempowered without a voice. We can not let this stand.
“Please, if you haven’t done so already, email the two democratic state board of elections commissioners and explain to them why you think it’s important that bernie maintain the right he’s earned, which he’s stated he’d like to exercise, to remain on the ballot for NY’s RemoteVote Primary, so you can send his delegates to the convention to fight for rules change which will serve his platform,” wrote Agudelo.
