Andrew Yang emerged four years ago with an anti-government presidential campaign, energizing a small but committed electorate and becoming a solid Democratic candidate by championing the merits of policies such as universal basic income. provided an alternative option.
Presidential campaign activities were suspended in February of the same year when authorities announced the cancellation of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, but the lawsuit seeks to hold the election with delegate candidates who had pledged to Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. joined. I won.
This year, as the state's most avid Democratic and Republican voters trudge to the polls by the end of early voting on Saturday, or when voting resumes at 6 a.m. Tuesday for the primary, they're not casting their votes. They are voting in the shadow of a court ruling that blocked them. The State Board of Elections is prohibited from canceling primaries unless the results are certain so voters can affirm the candidates they have already decided on.
Sound familiar?
Even if President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump secure Democratic and Republican candidates at the top, New Yorkers will be asked to do the exact same thing.
Doug Kellner, a former Democratic co-chair of the New York State Board of Elections and one of Yang's defendants, said the lawsuit shows officials that “many people still don't want to be heard in the primary.'' He said that he taught them how to “want to do something.”
Kellner said that's partly why there was never any question about whether the parties would hold primaries this year, “even though we all know what the final outcome will be.” He said he thought so.
“From my perspective, elections are important,” Kellner added. “And we need to trade off the cost of holding an election against the cost of holding an election in which people must formally vote to confirm the authority of their representatives.”
And the cost will be considerable.
The New York City Board of Elections estimates that the city will spend about $25 million on this primary election alone. The city also provides resources for voters who need language access assistance. There will be primary elections for state and federal officials in June, followed by a general election in November.
Yang declined to comment for this story, and his attorney, Jeffrey Curzon, did not respond to a request for comment. But J. Remy Green, a lawyer who represented a group of Sanders delegate candidates in the lawsuit, said the political climate surrounding this primary is clearly different than it was four years ago.
“You can call it a protest vote, but the meaning of it is very different now than it was back then,” Greene said, adding that his client's support for Sanders led to a brokered Democratic National Convention and helped shape the party's platform. I look forward to contributing.
Still, Greene noted there is still no better way to register to vote in protest than at the ballot box.
“I think we're sitting in the shadow of what happened in 2020 to the extent that this has any meaning. And perhaps more nitty-gritty, the polls are all sampled and weighted. “There's no other way to communicate these things because they consistently get things wrong. 'It's an important way,'” Green added.
Voters will see Biden, Marianne Williamson and Dean Phillips in this year's Democratic presidential primary. They will also see the list of Democratic National Convention delegates pledged to Biden.
Some voters are registering to protest the race over Biden's handling of the Israel-Hamas war by submitting a blank ballot, the only way to cast a noncommittal vote in New York's Democratic primary. It is said that
Republicans can choose from Vivek Ramaswamy, Chris Christie, Nikki Haley, and Trump.
But even state party officials downplay the importance of these primaries.
“It's required by state law,” said Jay Jacobs, chairman of the state Democratic Party.
And it's not just Democrats who find Tuesday's primary lackluster.
“The primary is over and our attention is squarely focused on the general election,” said David Laska, a spokesman for the New York State Republican Party. “That means electing President Trump and his favored candidate for the Senate, Mike Sapracorn, and protecting the NYGOP House majority.”
