Democrats in New York won’t get a chance to vote for their preferred presidential candidate this year.
On Monday, the New York State Board of Elections canceled the Democratic presidential primary due to coronavirus concerns.
Originally scheduled for April 28, the vote had been pushed to June 23, which will remain the election date for down-ballot races.
According to NY1, Board co-chair Douglas Kellner said the election would have been “essentially a beauty contest” in the wake of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) suspending his campaign and clearing the path to the nomination for Joe Biden.
But Sanders and his supporters disagree. In a letter sent Sunday, the Sanders campaign urged the Board to keep him on the ballot and move forward with the vote. It points to Sanders’ intention to gather delegates despite his suspended campaign in hopes of “influencing the party’s platform” at the Democratic National Convention.
On Twitter, users criticized the Board’s decision to disregard Sanders’ candidacy, with some calling the cancelation undemocratic.
While New York is the first state to cancel a primary vote in response to the coronavirus, more than a dozen states have postponed their elections.
A primary held as-scheduled earlier this month in Wisconsin has since been linked to 36 cases of the virus, according to Politico.
Update 2:45pm CT, April 27: In a statement, the Sanders campaign called the decision an “outrage,” and a “blow to American democracy.”
“No one asked New York to cancel the election. The DNC didn’t request it. The Biden campaign didn’t request it. And our campaign communicated that we wanted to remain on the ballot. Given that the primary is months away, the proper response must be to make the election safe—such as going to all vote by mail—rather than to eliminating people’s right to vote completely.
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