New York Judge Reinstates Democratic Presidential Primary, Following Cuomo’s Attempt to Shelve It

A federal judge ruled that New York must reinstate Bernie Sanders and the other Democratic presidential candidates to the ballot, placing the state’s primary election back into effect after Governor Andrew Cuomo had attempted to shut it down.

Judge Analisa Torres of the Southern District of New York made the ruling on Tuesday. Cuomo had initially postponed the presidential primary election(while maintaining other primary elections for state and local offices) from April to June 23rd, citing the coronavirus epidemic. He later proceeded to strip every Democratic presidential candidate from the ballot, essentially cancelling the election on grounds of public safety.

Even though Joe Biden has become the presumptive Democratic nominee, previous candidates slammed the decision to cancel the primary as an affront to the democratic voting rights of New York residents. UBI advocate and former Democratic Presidential candidate Andrew Yang had filed the lawsuit against Cuomo in federal court, leading to the primary’s reinstatement.

The outright cancellation of a primary election with millions of potential voters was nearly unprecedented, and Cuomo’s explanation of it being acceptable because the other Democrats had dropped out of the race proved unsatisfying.

Perhaps the New York governor, whose national profile has been illuminated from his daily coronavirus press briefings, had been seeking to throw a bone to Biden’s team with the hopes that he would be selected as the party elder’s Vice Presidential nominee. But Biden appears committed to picking a running mate who is a woman.

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