On June 23rd, New Yorkers will — one way or another — cast their votes in the state’s primary elections. One race, however, will be missing from the ballot. On Monday, two unelected officials moved to cancel the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, denying a voice to millions of New Yorkers at this critical moment in history.
The decision springs out of an obscure clause in the recent state budget — tucked away, in classic Albany style, in a 200,000 word bill passed in the final hours of budget season — giving the state Board of Elections the power to deem a candidate in a presidential primary “no longer eligible” and omit them from the ballot. Despite no candidate requesting Sen. Bernie Sanders’ removal, Sanders’ stated desire to remain on the ballot, and no legal mandate for the board to use that power, the Democratic commissioners decided Monday to invoke this provision for the first time.
“What the Sanders campaign wanted is essentially a beauty contest that, given the situation with the public health emergency, seems to be unnecessary and, indeed, frivolous,” said BOE co-chair Douglas Kellner in announcing his decision. Kellner is, of course, right that election plans can and should be altered in response to the Coronavirus crisis. In states like Wisconsin, when candidates like former Vice President Joe Biden urged supporters to show up to polls in person, lives were put at risk.
But especially when a shift to a mail-in election was already in progress before Keller’s decision, the idea that the pandemic should justify scrapping a primary altogether is deeply problematic. The results of the New York primary would have been far from insignificant: Whether or not Sanders can meet the 15% threshold necessary to have representatives on the Democratic National Convention’s platform committee hinges on the percentage of outstanding delegates he wins. With roughly half of the states yet to vote, deciding that there is no utility to further primaries erases the voices of countless Americans and limits the party’s ability to grapple with the essential questions of the day.
The decision would make more sense if New York had a record of making such alterations to the ballot equitably — if every time a candidate were no longer active, figures from the Democratic establishment had sought to change the law in order to remove them from the ballot. But when Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez beat former Rep. Joe Crowley in his Democratic primary, and he remained on the ballot due to some quirks of election law, was there the same push to remove him from the general election ballot? Or, when former state Sen. Jeff Klein, a conservative Democrat who had allied with Republicans, lost his primary and ended his campaign, was there the same desire to omit him from the final ballot? Indeed, if the ability to exclude inactive candidates from the ballot is so necessary for the smooth functioning of elections, wouldn’t the budget bill have granted that power in races other than presidential primaries alone?
Monday’s decision is emblematic of a deeper contempt for democracy baked into New York’s political system. It is an ideology that manifested last primary cycle, when New York City purged 200,000 voters from rolls, and BOE members were accused of knowingly violating state laws to do so. It is an ideology that manifested a few months ago, when New York state did its best to wipe out the Working Families Party, a progressive third party, due to what many observers saw as the governor’s personal vendetta against it. It is an ideology that manifested in the fact that, until reforms last year introduced basic improvements like early voting and no-excuse absentee balloting, New York state had the “worst-in-the-country voting system.” And it is an ideology that manifests in Monday’s decision.
The lack of a contested primary at the top of the ticket will no doubt depress turnout across the board at a time when local races are more important than ever. Across New York’s 27 congressional districts, all but seven will hold Democratic primaries. A similar story is true for Assembly and state Senate districts and for races at the local level. Especially in a state where primary elections often determine the winner of the general election (due to years of gerrymandering by both sides, toss-up districts are far from the norm), lower turnouts have grave consequences for the democratic process.
Trust in the democratic process is not something to be taken for granted, as part of some automatic civic ritual. It’s something that needs to be cultivated through rigorous and robust elections, and when citizens feel that their voices are ignored, that trust is violated.
Especially in New York, elections have long served as evidence of the state’s resilience. On the darkest day in the state’s history, as 9/11 struck New York City’s heart, the polls remained open. During one of the most horrible natural disasters that the state has faced, as Hurricane Sandy ravaged the land, the polls remained open. Even — especially — in moments of trial, elections have long symbolized democracy’s perseverance in the Empire State.
As the coronavirus shakes society to its core, we could have used that symbol once again.
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