2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumErica Garner can't vote in the NY Primary
http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/city-hall/2016/04/8596562/sanders-backer-erica-garner-may-not-be-able-vote-democratic-primarBut she may not be able to vote in it.
Soooo the ny primary is closed," Garner wrote on Facebook Wednesday. That means, she said, if your nt a dem or GOP you cant vote nx week???
Garner also wrote that the deadline to switch parties has passed" adding "fml," the common online acronym to express frustration.
This is screwed up... It is completely disenfranchising to have such draconian and archaic primary rules. Who is thinking about the primaries back in October.
JudyM
(29,251 posts)Tarc
(10,476 posts)Freddie Stubbs
(29,853 posts)msongs
(67,420 posts)hellofromreddit
(1,182 posts)Am I doing this right?
Response to msongs (Reply #2)
Post removed
Punkingal
(9,522 posts)Chan790
(20,176 posts)It's like Hillary claiming to be a Democrat.
lostnfound
(16,184 posts)A little distracted so HEY! She doesn't DESERVE to vote.
Autumn
(45,107 posts)Response to GeorgiaPeanuts (Original post)
Luminous Animal This message was self-deleted by its author.
bettyellen
(47,209 posts)DesertFlower
(11,649 posts)bettyellen
(47,209 posts)off the rolls by the GOP to call this being disenfranchised. They could have voted if they took a few minutes to find out the requirements.
DesertFlower
(11,649 posts)arizona, but a month before the primary i went on-line to make sure my registration was up to date. can't be too careful.
MerryBlooms
(11,770 posts)I'm not at all surprised Ms. Garner had no idea, add the tragic death of her father... this young woman deserves respect and compassion, and a little slack, no matter her preferred candidate. You know who I feel has no excuse? The Trumpies. What excuse do those kids have for not being eligible to vote? Granted every privilege money and celebrity can buy, but can't vote for their own father?
bettyellen
(47,209 posts)it is not actual anything more than people being careless.
MerryBlooms
(11,770 posts)We have a serious lack of education in this country when it comes to politics... but I think politicians kinda like it that way. We all suffer because of it.
KingFlorez
(12,689 posts)I don't know, people who are actually politically engaged? If you aren't engaged, you get nothing...
passiveporcupine
(8,175 posts)How often does someone need to change their party to vote?
Most people stay in their party and vote in their party and don't think about having to change because of something like an independent running as a dem.
Erica may have been registered to vote, just not as a democrat.
Or, she has never voted before (apathy) and this is the first time she's even wanted to, and just doesn't know the rules like this six month rule. I didn't know that there were rules like this...I've just never been affected by it.
Cali_Democrat
(30,439 posts)But she doesn't know her voter registration status?
Beacool
(30,250 posts)Isn't that ironic? They missed the registration deadline.
grossproffit
(5,591 posts)Beacool
(30,250 posts)If I'm not mistaken, Ivanka's husband is a Democrat.
Travis_0004
(5,417 posts)She should do it today. If she doesn't do it in time for the presidential election, she will be out of luck again.
Jim Lane
(11,175 posts)The problem in NY is that, if you registered as unaffiliated or with any party other than the Democratic Party, you had to change that by last October 9 if you want to vote in this year's Democratic primaries (Presidential in April, Congressonal in June, state legislative in September).
For the general election, fortunately, there's no requirement that you get your paperwork in order six months or eight months or eleven months in advance in order to vote.
Travis_0004
(5,417 posts)They don't want republicans switching sides (or vice versa) to just vote for the candidate who appears the weakest.
If you never registered before, the deadline to register and choose a party is March 25th. If you are already registered, you are not allowed to switch parties without advanced notice. This year both primaries are contested, but in years past one primary was basically final, and a lot of people switch parties to vote for the weak candidate, and new york is trying to stop that.
Jim Lane
(11,175 posts)First, I don't know whether you're correct that "a lot of people switch parties to vote for the weak candidate...." My guess is that very few people care enough to bother.
Beyond that, there's a trade-off between, on the one hand, preventing that kind of game-playing and, on the other, accommodating people who legitimately change parties. A requirement of a very long lead time strikes the balance far too much toward one side. New York had an October 2015 deadline for voting in the primaries to be held in April, June, and September of 2016. AFAIK, no other state has such a draconian requirement for independents who come to decide that one of the parties (or at least one of the candidates) speaks for them. Other states require advance notice, as you urge, but not notice that can be as long as eleven months before the primary.
LexVegas
(6,067 posts)Ed Suspicious
(8,879 posts)Go away.
Starry Messenger
(32,342 posts)They've been working with her for months.
Vinca
(50,278 posts)Sancho
(9,070 posts)Would you want a bunch of Tea Party voters to jump into the Democratic primary and put forward a non-Democrat? Would you think it was ok if the voter rolls were purged arbitrarily of minority voters? Would you think it was ok if districts were gerrymandered so that the GOP won a majority every time?
If candidates are required to represent their party and primary voters are required to register with a party, it prevents cross-overs and interlopers from screwing up the whole thing.
Down here in the Sunbelt, we definitely were thinking about the primary and registration a year ago! That's why many thousands of Floridians voted by mail weeks before the primary date. It also means those voters are registered and ready to vote in the general election. It also means the voter rolls are accurate so that we can investigate gerrymandering and attempts by the GOP to discriminate. That's why we voted for a gerrymandering amendment and took the GOP to court to start fixing the artificial majority they created. What is the database? It's voter registration data!!!
That's not disenfranchising - it's powerful information that Democrats use to support fair elections and Democratic candidates.
You cannot be more wrong. If you support Democrats, then register asap as a Democrat and vote as a Democrat.
JustinL
(722 posts)In Rosario v. Rockefeller, 410 U.S. 752 (1973), the Supreme Court upheld the New York deadline 5-4, at a time when there were only 3 liberals on the court (Douglas, Brennan, and Marshall).
From Justice Powell's dissenting opinion, joined by the 3 liberals, at pp. 769-771:
Whatever state interest exists for preventing cross-overs from one party to another is appreciably lessened where, as in the case of petitioners, there has been no previous affiliation with any political party. The danger of voters in sympathy with one party "raiding" another party is insubstantial where the voter has made no prior party commitment at all. Certainly, the danger falls short of the overriding state interest needed to justify denying petitioners, so far in advance, the right to declare an initial party affiliation and vote in the party primary of their choice.
...
Partisan political activities do not constantly engage the attention of large numbers of Americans, especially as party labels and loyalties tend to be less persuasive than issues and the qualities of individual candidates. The crossover in registration from one party to another is most often impelled by motives quite unrelated to a desire to raid or distort a party's primary. To the extent that deliberate raiding occurs, it is usually the result of organized effort which depends for its success upon some relatively immediate concern or interest of the voters. This type of effort is more likely to occur as a primary date draws near. If New York were to adopt a more reasonable enrollment deadline, say 30 to 60 days, the period most vulnerable to raiding activity would be protected. More importantly, a less drastic enrollment deadline than the eight or 11 months now imposed by New York would make the franchise and opportunities for legitimate party participation available to those who constitutionally have the right to exercise them.
If we get a liberal majority on the Court for the first time since 1969, hopefully we'll able to overrule Rosario v. Rockefeller and strike down New York's ridiculous deadline.
B Calm
(28,762 posts)Hell even behind the Hoosier Iron Curtain (regardless of which political party you are aligned with), you can ask for either ballot in the primary election. That's the way it should be nationwide.
NWCorona
(8,541 posts)I just find it weird that people are ridiculing Erica simply because she supports Bernie. Maybe she hasn't felt the need to vote before this cycle? I'm not even sure if Erica was involved with Bernie back in October.
All the disenfranchised voters should focus on getting that bill passed so this doesn't happen again.
jillan
(39,451 posts)Absolutely NO shame!