Independents Make Last Ditch Effort To Vote In NY's Primary

[displacedtexan]

You have got to be freakin' kidding me. Indies don't want to join the party but are determined to pick the candidate?

http://gothamist.com/2016/04/12/ny_primary_battle_independent.php

[Gothmog]

1. This will not happen by Tuesday

[MarianJack]

2. A pretty brazen attempt...

...to piss in our soup like in Michigan!

PEACE!

[SharonClark]

37. Piss in the soup?

My grand always said "piss in the punch bowl".

[MarianJack]

40. Also good!

On the whole, I'd rather not have piss in either one!

PEACE!

[workinclasszero]

3. F them!

Its a DEMOCRATIC party primary!

[Stand and Fight]

4. Bunch of flipping idiots. To hell with them. Bunch of children throwing tantrums.

[displacedtexan]

6. According to the article, they're 27% of the voters

So, why on earth, don't they pay for their own primary and support BS that way?

Oh, yeah. That pesky word "pay."

[book_worm]

5. Yep...

register and vote for Bernie in the primary and then if it's not him go back to supporting the Green Party.

[stopbush]

7. I'm so tired of these privileged, elitist Indies.

The Dems should be going to all closed primaries. These are not elections for government positions. They are selections for candidates to run for government positions.

If the Indies don't like it, they should form their own parties and select their own candidates. If you don't like how the major parties run their own affairs, don't participate. Only stop the whining that you're not allowed to come in at the last moment and play the usurper in the primary of a political party you don't even belong to.

[BlueMTexpat]

11. Absolutely. eom

[brush]

13. You have nailed it exactly.

"Only stop the whining that you're not allowed to come in at the last moment and play the usurper in the primary of a political party you don't even belong to."

Your sentence above couldn't be said any better.

[Tarheel_Dem]

25. ^^^^ TRUTH ^^^^

[SharonClark]

38. K&R for truth

[BlueMTexpat]

8. Exactly.

I have absolutely NO sympathy for them. None.

From the link:

Advocates of closed primary elections argue that they prevent so-called "party crashing," or switching parties at the last minute and voting en-masse for an unpopular candidate in order to mess with the opposing frontrunner.

They've just woken up to the political process. So they want to ruin the election if it doesn't go for their candidate.

Long-standing rules just don't apply to them.

[Iliyah]

20. They also did that in WI but didn't vote down ticket

and the RW SC Bradley got in. Shame.

[msongs]

9. well they are not very smart considering this process has been well known for a year lol nt

[stopbush]

14. But THEY didn't know about it, so it's all an evil plot to disenfranchise them!!

And if Sanders had any brains, he would have been informing potential Indy voters in states like NY that they needed to change their registration to vote for him in the D primary. Didn't he announce in April? They had until October to change their registrations.

Of course, this points out the problem: they're not interested in being Ds. They're only interested in seeing Sanders steal the D nomination from an actual Democrat. Why should people like that have any say in who the Ds select as their nominee?

[Her Sister]

10. So can we vote in their primaries too?

I wanna vote in all the Party Primaries!!!

[stopbush]

12. BTW - I think the DNC should pass a new rule -

call it "The Sanders Rule" - that stipulates that any person wishing to run as a candidate for the D nomination for POTUS must be a member in good standing with the D Party for at least 5 consecutive years leading up to the day they announce their candidacy.

And, yes, I have sent this suggestion to the DNC.

[LisaM]

18. Is he even a Democrat now?

I mean a paid-up, actual party member?

[stopbush]

26. He changed his affiliation last April, IIRC.

As far as his dues, I don't know. I'm sure they would appear as a deduction on his 2015 tax return...

[CajunBlazer]

31. This!!!! ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

[LiberalFighter]

15. I'm getting sick of these people that want to have it both ways.

If a person is not a Democrat then they should not be voting in a Democratic primary.

[displacedtexan]

16. BS could've done this the decent way.

He could've run as an independent, but that would've meant that he'd have to get a good enough vote percentage to get matching funds and to compete in the debates. He knew he wouldn't have the money , and he knew he could get access to Dem Party data and matching funds if he ran as a Dem. The fact that he hasn't changed his party status in his upcoming senate race speaks to the lack of decency I alluded to above.

Truly heavy sigh.

[NurseJackie]

17. If they want to influence the party, then JOIN the party.

All these folks who wanted to "make a statement" by declaring themselves Independents have indeed "made a statement" ... they don't want to be affiliated with the Democratic party, so now they find out what that really means.

If they want to play the game, then they'll need to read-up on the rules. (Seems like such a silly mistake for them to make because, in theory, they pride themselves on being politically active and engaged. But, looking around, it seems that it's not so much after all.)

[yallerdawg]

19. Independents vote in November.

Primaries are for political parties.

Even in open primaries, voters are asked to commit to the party and the nominee in November.

If you are truly independent, why would you even want to participate in a party primary (Bernie)?

[HillareeeHillaraah]

21. But if we don't change things to suit the millenials...

...our country is doomed! Doomed I tell you!

I.can't.even.

[Iliyah]

22. Yeah, and once they start their empoyment and find out how much taxes they need to

pay for "free stuff" their tune will change post haste.

[HillareeeHillaraah]

23. Do you think they know

That whole free tuition thing isn't likely to be retroactive?

[stopbush]

29. I did some calculations, and the best I could figure

is that under Sanders' policies, the average Joe would be paying roughly 42% of their yearly salary in taxes were all of the existing programs - Medicare, etc - kept at their current levels of service/funding.

Sanders way underestimates the costs of his programs. Plus, he does away with revenue streams that are currently funding programs. There just aren't enough savings to be had to cover the trillions of dollars a year he would add to the government tab. Hell, the entire defense budget is only $600-billion a year. You could eliminate the whole defense budget and still need around $2-trillion a year to pay for Sanders' programs.

[HillareeeHillaraah]

30. But were negative nellies for not joining his utopia

Sheesh!

[CajunBlazer]

32. For verification just look at the tax rates paid in Denmark

and other countries with socialist systems. And the only reason that Denmark has gotten by so far is due to oil tax revenue which keeps their system funded. However, with the glut of oil world wide and prices falling, their in trouble and will have to raise their tax rate, already among the highest in the world, still higher.

Why Denmark Isn’t the Utopian Fantasy Bernie Sanders Describes

[justhanginon]

24. A bunch of freeloading, mooching, users that have an exaggerated

sense of their intellect and a magnified sense of self worth. They have that same arrogant, condescending attitude of SBS, the sainted one.
They want everyone to bow down without question to their "unquestionably" moral superiority and purity of soul that only Sanders and his followers seem to possess. Any Democratic primary rules that are not in their favor must be altered or done away with immediately even though they do not even belong to the Democratic party and are self styled "independents".

[Tarheel_Dem]

27. I certainly hope these Johnny-Come-Lately(s) won't be allowed to disrupt our nominating process.

We're playing by the same rules from the last election. The fact that Hillary is a very good study, and has nailed the process, doesn't mean we should allow a bunch of malcontents to re-write the rules. If you're not a member, you don't get a say. It's really that simple.

This is just another way that BS=Trump. They started their "revolutions" and didn't bother to read the fine print. It's the reason Cruz is cleaning up in the race for delegates on the right, and Hillary is doing the same on the left. "Process" matters.

[Princess Turandot]

28. Sigh....

This should not have been a problem for anyone who registered to vote for the first time during this primary season, which they could do up until March 25, 2016. Did the Sanders fans simply refuse to enroll in a party when they registered?

The NYS registration form explicitly states that you need to register in a party to vote in the primaries:

Political party: You must make 1 selection. Political party enrollment is optional but, in order to vote in a primary election of a political party, a voter must enroll in that political party, unless state party rules allow otherwise.

http://www.elections.ny.gov/NYSBOE/download/voting/voteform.pdf

And if you did not check a party box, you had to check the one that said 'I do not wish to enroll in a political party'. That section had to be completed for the registration form to be considered completed. It's not like you could overlook that part of the form.

Previously registered voters who wanted to change or elect party affiliation had to do so by early October 2015. Did any of these people now squawking try to vote in the Democratic gubernatorial primary in 2014, when incumbent Andrew Cuomo was challenged by Progressive darling Zephyr Teachout? Was a progressive voice in that race unimportant to them?

It's all cod swallop. IMHO, of course. My guess is that the biggest problem was that people professing a desire for Sanders didn't get around to registering to vote in the first place.

[CajunBlazer]

33. Some people just don't pay attention until the last minute...

and then want the rules to be changed to accommodate them. The New York rules should be no problem who have been registered Democrats for years.

None of Trump's children will be able to vote for him in New York because they are not registered Republicans. How ironic. Shows us how well organized the Trump campaign is.

[Thinkingabout]

34. It would be a good education for many to study on the election process, to know certain deadlines

and rules which must be met in order for a candidate to run. Some things have to have rules, I have been seeing here a year ago about the states which had open and closed primaries, not sure on the date one must have their party changed in order to vote in the primary. Just as we need to research the candidates many other things must be researched. It is not the failure of the DNC or RNC.

[Walk away]

35. So people who hate the Democratic party and follow a leader who abhors that party...

want to force the Democratic party to let them change rules and choose a nominee for POTUS. It's the Democratic Party!!!! It's not the Bernie party.

One thing is certain. The party will think twice before they let another snake in the Grass use us again.

[OilemFirchen]

36. "The Independence Party of New York says that 37% of New York voters under the age of 30..."

"are independent voters. "

Then they should vote in the Independence Party's primary.

What's so fucking hard to understand about that?

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

39. These are not Independents; they are fucking Rethugs trying to fuck with the Democratic race.

[stopbush]

42. It's worse. It's politicaly naive deadenders who call themselves

Independents and who are unwittingly doing the will of the Rs by screwing up the D nominating process.

[Historic NY]

41. They are hoping an independant Ny Assemblyman is going to get a Democratic Assembly to pass it.