For the first time in years, New York State\u2019s Presidential primary is important in determining who will be the nominees from both the Republican and Democratic parties.\u00a0 No one knew how this primary season would play out.\u00a0 A year ago, the Democrats looked like they were lining up behind Hillary Clinton \u2013 now many voters are \u201cfeeling the Bern\u201d as Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders makes a spirited run.\u00a0 On the Republican side, no one predicted the rise of Donald Trump as the leading candidate.<\/p>\n
But both parties are having highly contested primaries and New York voters can play an important role.\u00a0 Well, at least some of them can.<\/p>\n
New York State has very restrictive political party enrollment rules.\u00a0 For all elections, New Yorkers have to be enrolled at least 25 days before an election in order to vote.\u00a0 That deadline is among the longest in the nation.\u00a0 In order to vote in the upcoming November general election, voters will have to have been enrolled by early October.<\/p>\n
The same rule applies to the Presidential primary.\u00a0 If a New Yorker has never been registered<\/em> to vote, they could have done so by March 25th<\/sup>.\u00a0 Any new voter who registered after that day cannot vote in the Presidential primary.<\/p>\n But for those who wished to vote in the April Presidential primary, and who were already<\/em> registered to vote, they needed to have been registered in the political party of their choice before October 9, 2015.<\/p>\n That\u2019s right, for New Yorkers who wished to change their party enrollment<\/em> because they were inspired by the visions offered by the Republican (in addition to Trump, there are candidates Ted Cruz and John Kasich \u2013 Ben Carson remained on New York\u2019s ballot as well) or Democratic candidates they would have had to make that decision nearly six months ago.<\/p>\n Of course, virtually no New Yorker knew of any of these rules and there are likely to be many angry New Yorkers at the polls during this week\u2019s Presidential primary.\u00a0 In fact, many may be confused since they have been watching the ongoing presidential battle, where people in some states simply show up for caucuses to vote. \u00a0In states with early voting, residents have weeks to vote, and in some states voters can cast ballots in any party\u2019s primary.<\/p>\n But not in New York.\u00a0 As a result, there have been media reports that some counties know that and are trying to short-circuit the problem.<\/p>\n On Long Island, for example, it has been reported that Suffolk County\u2019s elections commissioners have sent warning letters to nearly 7,000 voters who switched parties after the deadline.\u00a0 The board\u2019s letter notes that \u201cNew York is one of 11 states with \u2018closed\u2019 primaries in which residents who are registered in a party can vote in that party\u2019s primary.<\/p>\n According to the newspaper Newsday, the letter sent to these voters stated, \u201cSince you submitted your change of enrollment . . . after the legal deadline, your change of party . . . will become effective seven days after the general election day 2016.\u201d That means their first presidential primary vote will have to wait until 2020.<\/p>\n And to add to the confusion, in some areas of the state there will be special elections to fill vacated legislative seats.\u00a0 For example, the legislative positions held by disgraced former Assembly Speaker Silver and Senate Majority Leader Skelos are up for consideration.\u00a0 For those elections, all voters can vote \u2013 and had to have been registered by March 25, but still could not have switched parties after October 9th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n