New York Primary Day

A few states around and including New York (plus Wisconsin) had primaries today. New York tried to cancel a presidential primary in 2020 after it was clear Biden was the winner (plus it was during COVID). A lawsuit stopped that. 

The primary was in June. It was not a stand-alone presidential primary. There was also a stronger protest vote (plus Yang was feisty). Now, it is a stand-alone primary with the usual June primary on a separate day. Since Biden and Trump were in, and this is not really surprising by April, it seems logical not to have a separate primary. 

The New York City Board of Elections estimates that the city will spend roughly $25 million on this primary election alone. The city is also providing resources for voters who need language access assistance. There is another primary election for state and federal officials in June and then the general election in November.

We had early voting too. Toss in an icky day weather-wise, how many people will vote in a race already decided? It made sense for New York to combine the state and federal primary days. I appreciate the extra paycheck for being a poll worker on an additional day. Nonetheless, a combined election makes sense. If it's too late to fit the presidential primary calendar, have it earlier during presidential election years.  

There was a forlorn hope that we would still have a competitive primary in April. An earlier primary could matter. Oh well. Some people (not clear any in my own polling place) put in a blank ballot as an Israel-Gaza protest vote. This is counted if not right away.

You can check out here to parse the protest vote, which is over 20% against Trump in some places. DeSantis is on some ballots but is not in New York. People could vote for Trump, Haley, Christie, and Ramaswamy.  

As of now, Trump has 82% support in New York, and Christie managed four percent. He is if anything (except for Manhattan, where he is around 71%) more popular among registered Republicans who voted here. Note both qualifiers. With 75% in, Biden is at 91.5% overall with the low being in Republican-leaning Staten Island (86%) though voting for Marianne Williamson there (7.5%) seems a bit off. The blank vote percentages again won't be available for a while.

I again appreciate the people who came out to vote. Usually, we have a few parents with children. None this time. But, the school was in session, so we got some use out of those "future voters" stickers. After all, school is the teaching ground for future voters. 

Next up: Wyoming. 

ETA: A local story does some sleuthing and sounds like about 15% of NYC voted blank. The link I included doesn't include the blank votes so that isn't included yet.