They claim the party affiliation on their voter registration changed without their consent, leaving them shut out of voting in Tuesday’s primary.
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But only registered Democrats and Republicans can vote in the respective primaries.
With less than 24 hours until the presidential primary, a group of New Yorkers who saw their party affiliations mysteriously switched are filing a lawsuit Monday seeking to open the state’s closed primary so that they can cast a ballot. The deadline is May 23 – two weeks before election day.
Passionate Bernie Sanders supporter Valerie Kelemen also failed to switch in time. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), in the primary.
“We have a team of professional data analysts and statisticians who are working on metadata analytics to see if there are any discernible patterns that may suggest causal connections – where could the problem have started?” she said.
“I would say today even with this fairly vigorous turnout here, people are in and out”, Lenihan said. The lawsuit calls for the immediate restoration of voting rights for the thousands of eligible New Yorkers who, upon verifying their voter registration status recently, discovered their status was listed as “not registered” or, having registered and previously voted as Democrats, are now listed as “unaffiliated with any party (independent)” or “Republican”, thereby disqualifying them from voting in the state’s closed Presidential Primary on Tuesday.
So there is a feeling here in the air in NY that their votes matter. It is a very long and complicated procedural law. “It’s hard to register to vote”.
Where do I apply for an absentee ballot?
New York’s 291 delegates would not become winner-take-all unless Sanders or Clinton dropped significantly from their polling averages and failed to reach the minimum to secure any delegates. There’s no voting by mail. Find out where you can vote here.
Many of those involved in the lawsuit claim that when they looked up their voter registration after the deadline had passed, it had changed their party affiliation from either Democratic or Republican to “Not affiliated” or “Independent”, which makes them ineligible to vote in either primary.
Just 58 percent of the city’s registered voters participated in the 2012 general election and only 26 percent of registered voters took part in the city’s 2013 general election, when Democrat Bill de Blasio was elected mayor.
NY voters on Tuesday are also facing additional hurdles, according to Election Justice USA.
He added, “When it was implemented, it was considered a reform”.
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“I’ve always voted based on the candidate as opposed to based on the party”, she said. Election Justice USA’s lawsuit will be filed at the Eastern District of New York Federal District Court in Brooklyn this afternoon. “We found out about it sort of after the fact”.
