New York officers canceled the state’s Democratic presidential main on Monday, calling the vote a magnificence contest that the state can unwell af
New York officers canceled the state’s Democratic presidential main on Monday, calling the vote a magnificence contest that the state can unwell afford within the face of the coronavirus epidemic.
The transfer by Democrats on the New York State Board of Elections adopted the choice by Senator Bernie Sanders to concede the Democratic presidential nomination to former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., rendering the primary unnecessary.
Officials had struggled with the decision, which was certain to anger some supporters of Mr. Sanders, but they ultimately concluded that the risk of spreading coronavirus was too great to justify holding an election with no real meaning.
No other contest is on ballots in about 20 of the state’s 62 counties on June 23, meaning that voters in those counties will now have no need to go to the polls.
Supporters of Mr. Sanders had mounted an email and phone campaign to pressure the two Democratic members of the Board of Elections to keep Mr. Sanders on the ballot and hold a presidential primary, allowing Sanders backers to amass delegates to the Democratic National Convention where they could wield influence over the party platform.
In a letter to the board on Sunday, Mr. Sanders’s campaign had urged the board to keep him on the ballot and hold a primary in the interest of party unity, and the Sanders-aligned group Our Revolution had cautioned against the presidential primary’s cancellation.
“Suppressing the Sanders vote in New York will again lead to attacks on the Party across the nation and harm the volunteer effort that our group and others are building for Joe Biden,” said the group’s chair, Larry Cohen, suggesting he will challenge the New York delegation on the floor of the convention.
With the decision, made during a telephone meeting by the two Democrats on the election board, New York became the first state to cancel its primary, only the latest major development in the shifting national electoral landscape. In response to the coronavirus epidemic, 16 states have postponed their primaries and many have taken measures to encourage voting by mail.
Officials said they had weighed the concerns of Mr. Sanders’s supporters, but ultimately decided that canceling the election was the right thing to do.
Despite arrangements to encourage absentee voting, polling places are expected to remain open in New York for the election.
Andrew J. Spano, a board member, said the chance a primary could spread coronavirus counterbalanced the wishes of supporters of Mr. Sanders.
“I have a sensitivity to the fact that Sanders has run two times and a significant amount of supporters that want to say something,” said Mr. Spano, a former Westchester County executive.
Douglas A. Kellner, a chair of the elections board, said the decision was in keeping with a New York law providing that candidates should be removed from ballots if they suspend or terminate their campaigns.
“Obviously the intent of the legislature was not to have a primary election where there is no real contest,” said Mr. Kellner, a Manhattan lawyer who voted in favor of scrapping the primary.
Elections officials had said it cost more than $300,000 for a medium-sized county to hold a primary — an amount that does not include sending pre-stamped absentee ballot applications to voters — estimating that the cost savings of not holding a primary will range into the millions.
The chairman of the state Democratic Party, Jay Jacobs, had supported the move, saying that he had actively pushed to cancel the presidential primary in the state, while still holding the congressional, State Senate, assembly and other local races.
“The more we can do to reduce the risk factor of running the primary, the smarter I think that it is,” said Mr. Jacobs.
Mr. Sanders’ campaign said the law permitting the Board of Elections to determine who has withdrawn from a campaign should not apply to him because it was adopted after he qualified for the ballot.
“Senator Sanders wishes to remain on the ballot, and is concerned that his removal from the ballot would undermine efforts to unify the Democratic Party in advance of the general election,” said the letter, written by Malcolm Seymour, a lawyer for the Sanders campaign.
Mr. Sanders had said he was suspending his campaign on April 8 and he subsequently endorsed Mr. Biden. In doing so, however, he expressed a desire to remain on ballots and collect delegates in an effort to leverage his influence to push the party platform to better reflect his progressive positions.
The Republican presidential primary in New York had already been called off in February when no other candidates beside President Donald Trump qualified for the ballot.
Officials in Connecticut had also pushed for calling off that state’s primary, which has recently been rescheduled to August 11.
Consequences for canceling the Democratic presidential primary in New York, however, are uncertain at the moment.
Mr. Jacobs said he was not sure what it would mean for the state’s delegate count at the convention; that decision would be left to the Democratic National Committee’s rules committee.
“The D.N.C. has been very clear: the D.N.C. does not want to do anything that looks like we’re being unfair,” said Mr. Jacobs. “And we’re not being unfair, we’re just reacting to a global pandemic which happens to be centered in New York at the time.”
He added: “In a situation like this, lives have to Trump politics, no pun intended.”