Bernie Sanders supporters are reporting similar voter election problems in New York that they saw in Arizona. (Getty)
Here’s what you need to know.
Technical Problems Prevented Some Voters From Changing Their Party Affiliation Before the Deadline
New York is a closed primary, so you can only vote within the party that you’re registered with. Voters in New York whose party affiliation was dropped were given an extension, through Friday, March 25, to change their party affiliation. Unfortunately, many reported technical issues when trying to change their party affiliation online.You can go here to see if your registration is active and if you are listed as affiliated with the right party.
Democratic Board of Elections Commissioner Douglas Kellner said that any New York voter whose party affiliation was purged or was inactive could re-register by the end of the business day on Friday, March 25, and still be able to vote in the primary, according to a thread on Reddit that’s been tracking the issue.
Registering online was also an option, and one of Heavy’s commenters said that the DMV would accept online registrations if completed before midnight on March 25. Unfortunately, many people reported technical problems with the DMV site on Friday.
If you’re listed as inactive or unaffiliated, you can still change your registration, but it won’t help in time for the primary. A New York voter registration form that you can print is here, provided by the Bernie Sanders campaign, or here. You can find where to drop the form off here, or you can mail in your registration card or change your registration online.
Friday’s primary deadline was only for those registering to vote for the first time or those changing their party affiliation if their affiliation was purged or if they were listed as unaffiliated/inactive. If you were registered as a Republican, for example, you couldn’t change your party to Democrat and vote in the primary. That deadline was in October 2015.
If you are registered to vote in New York, these deadlines may still be applicable to you:
- April 12 – Last day to postmark an application or letter of application by mail for an absentee ballot.
- April 18 – Last day to apply in-person for an absentee ballot
- April 18 – Last day to postmark absentee ballot. It must be received by the local board of elections no later than April 26.
- April 19 – Last day to deliver absentee ballot in-person to local board of elections.
Many New York Voters Have Reported Problems With Their Voter Registration
It’s looking like New York voters may be seeing problems similar to Arizona.For example, one contributor on Reddit, @JRHenke, shared that his wife changed from unaffiliated to Democrat in New York last year, long before the October deadline. She went online to check her status and found that she’s now listed as “Not enrolled in a party.”
Another Redditor commented that he and his wife had voted for Obama in 2008 and again in 2012. But the New York website now says that neither of them are registered, even though none of his information had changed. Another person reported that he registered in December 2015, got an approval email, had the voter registration card in his wallet, and online he was being told that he was not registered.
The more you look, the more stories are reported. This person said they had registered as a Democrat in New York in 2010 to vote in the primaries. He’s voted in every election since. Two weeks ago he checked his voter status and everything was fine. He wrote: “Fast forward to last night when I received three phone bank calls asking if I’ve registered, it made me check my eligibility. Guess what? My information was not there.” He went to the county elections office to register again and was told that no one had any idea what had happened.
If you have found that your party affiliation was wrongly changed, consider reporting it to these sources and leave a comment below to let us know:
- NY ACLU
- New York Attorney General
- The Bernie Sanders campaign at help@berniesanders.com
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