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View Full Version : N.Y. Ballot Has Prospective Delegate Names



usmc4669
02-27-04, 01:17 PM
By MARC HUMBERT

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - Voters in New York's presidential primary don't have to fly to Florida to find a confusing ballot.
When 5.1 million Democrats go to the polls next week for the Super Tuesday showdown between John Kerry and John Edwards, they will find plenty of other candidates on the ballot - and all those prospective delegates.
Therein lies the confusion. To the right of the candidates' names will be lists of prospective national convention delegates, each pledged to represent a candidate. While the ballot clearly instructs Democrats to vote for a certain number of delegates - and the candidate of their choice - there actually is no need to vote for any delegates. It is enough just to pull the lever for a presidential candidate.
If the candidate doesn't have a delegate slate listed for a congressional district, party caucuses simply name delegates pledged to support that candidate. Still, campaigns usually try to put slates together as a show of organizational strength.
Some candidates, including front-runner Kerry, didn't bother to file delegate slates in some congressional districts. Edwards boasts that he has "the only active campaign with delegates in all 29 of New York's congressional districts" - not that it matters to the outcome.
"I think what people find when they go in to vote, the confusion, can be a little intimidating," said Lee Miringoff, head of Marist College's Institute of Public Opinion.
Depending on where they live, New Yorkers won't even vote at the same time. Voting hours are 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. in the areas with the heaviest population and commuter traffic. In the rural upstate areas, the polls are open from noon to 9 p.m.
When they do vote, they will face the lever-operated machines their parents and grandparents used - despite requests that they be replaced under the post-Florida Help America Vote Act. The state has received $66 million in federal HAVA funds, but the money remains unspent because Republicans and Democrats can't agree on how to spend it.
"It's an embarrassment ... and it contributes to lower voter participation rates, and to voter apathy and distrust," said Gene Russianoff of the New York Public Interest Research Group, a frequent critic of the state's election system.