2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forum*BREAKING: NEW YORK JUDGE RULES FOR VOTERS In Last Minute Primary Case, April 19
New York began disenfranchising millions of its citizens due to a draconian voter registration law it was uncovered recently. As a result, an emergency lawsuit (CV-16 1892) was filed in Federal District Court Monday by Election Justice USA to enable both independents and newly registered Democrats to vote in the primary. This law resulted in many people whom have been registered as Democrats were scrubbed from voter rolls without sufficient notice. The loss was so large in one borough of New York City that Mayor deBlasio raised the issue in an interview with WYNC:
"This number surprises me. I admit that Brooklyn has had a lot of transient population thats obvious. Lot of people moving in, lot of people moving out. That might account for some of it. But Im confused since so many people have moved in, that the number would move that much in the negative direction."
On top of these problems, reports are coming in of New York voters facing broken and malfunctioning machines, resulting in long lines. Add to it the usual partisan conflicts in a hotly contested primary, nobody can claim that New Yorks primary is not important.
Now the court has declined to dismiss the case, leaving the issue open for people to now petition for their vote to be accepted. This authorizes those who were denied access to the polls to cast their vote using a provisional ballot, due to the late stage of this decision. The judge also ruled that all county election offices must appear before the court within 60 days to defend their enrollment process. This order does not, however, give people who choose not to join a particular political party the opportunity to participate, leaving it only a partial answer to the issue.
For a more permanent solution, the legislature in Albany is currently working on Assembly Bill A9661, which would turn the New York primary into a full open primary.
The nature of democracy is the principle of one person, one vote. However, as Tom Stoppard put it in his play Jumpers, Its not the voting thats democracy; its the counting. By manipulating the numbers, by disenfranchising voters be it through closed primaries, voter ID laws or scrubbing election rolls, it undermines the principles upon which our nation was founded. The decision to enable people to vote in New Yorks primary today is another victory for the forces of democracy.
http://reverbpress.com/politics/battlegrounds/breaking-new-york-judge-rules-voters-primary-case/
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**This is a big win for all New York voters! This means those who legitimately should have been allowed to vote will be able to submit affidavit ballots and have their votes count!**
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)ugh, does this really need to be explained to people.
The judge kicked the can past the date of the primary, making it moot. Independents won't get to vote in the primary.
elleng
(131,103 posts)'leaving the issue open for people to now petition for their vote to be accepted. This authorizes those who were denied access to the polls to cast their vote using a provisional ballot.'
Does this really need to be explained to you?
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)has taken place?
the lawsuit didn't change anything for anyone.
Independents will not be allowed to participate, and Democrats with messed up voter registration records will be allowed to cast affidavit ballots, as they would have been otherwise.
appalachiablue
(41,171 posts)highprincipleswork
(3,111 posts)PLEASE DO!
appalachiablue
(41,171 posts)appalachiablue
(41,171 posts)PyaarRevolution
(814 posts)Thanks for posting.