New York Democrats cancel 2020 primary, kicking Bernie Sanders off the ballot

[Gothmog]

26. The cancellation will likely save the state millions of dollars

Mailing a separate presidential ballot would cost New York a ton of money https://www.politico.com/states/new-york/albany/story/2020/04/27/new-york-cancels-democratic-presidential-primary-1280260

The cancellation will likely save the state millions of dollars and make it easier to increase the use of voting by mail in local elections in the coming months. But it also will anger supporters of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who had hoped to win some delegates in New York to increase their sway over the party’s platform.

“We should minimize the number of people on the ballot, minimize the election for the protection of everybody … and not have everyone on the ballot just for purposes of issues at a convention,” Democratic Board of Elections Commissioner Andy Spano said during the board's meeting. ….

“But we’re dealing with a statute [that] specifically says that if a candidate has announced that they’re suspending their campaign, that they can be removed from the ballot,” he said. “What the Sanders supporters want is essentially a beauty contest that, given the situation with the public health emergency that seems to exist now, seems to be unnecessary and frivolous.”

Kellner and other election officials had framed the decision as a logical one that will make it much easier to administer elections in a year with an unprecedented number of administrative challenges

For one, it will make it much easier to manage a newly expanded system of voting-by-mail. There will still be a number of primaries for congressional, state, and local elections on June 23. But presidential ballots need to be designed differently, because of the way people elect delegates. That would have meant the ballot would need to be printed on a separate piece of paper and would cause at least a doubling in the paperwork involved.

“Mailing 6.5 million ballots for a presidential primary … in addition to whatever number is required for a state and local election, is likely impossible,” a board staff memo on the subject said. “Mailing a lesser number for a state and local election may be impossible as well, but it would likely be more attainable.”

And it’ll save some money at a time when the state's finances are in free-fall.