Democratic presidential primary for New York restored to original date

Manhattan U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres has ruled that the New York Democratic presidential primary must occur as originally planned on June 23 and that cancelling it was unconstitutional. A lawsuit had been brought before her by lawyers representing Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and businessman Andrew Yang.

As Judge Torres pointed out, no other state has canceled its primary because of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. The leadership for New York state’s Democratic party canceled the primary recently because Vice President Joe Biden is considered the presumptive candidate. In the last race, Biden had a huge lead over Sanders, who was the last person still actively competing against him.

Judge Torres agreed that voter safety is a valid concern, but noted that the absentee ballot system is a viable alternative that allows Americans to submit their votes. Additionally, no New York Democratic elections had been canceled.

Although Sanders gave his support to Biden, his lawyers made it clear that he wants to continue to collect delegates to increase his influence over the party. Judge Torres recognized this in her statement when she said that canceling the primary “deprived Democratic voters of the opportunity to elect delegates who could push their point of view in that forum… The loss of these First Amendment rights is a heavy hardship.”

Sources:

RochesterFirst.com

The New York Times