NY urged to postpone presidential primary election due to coronavirus

Arizona voters are held outside until other voters leave the polling station prior to casting their ballot in the Arizona presidential preference election Tuesday, March 17, 2020, in Phoenix. Limited voters were allowed inside at one time to promote social distancing in an effort to slow the spread of COVID-19 coronavirus. (AP Photo/Matt York)AP

Political and good-government groups are urging New York to postpone its upcoming April 28 presidential primary election, or allow voting by mail, because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Five states have already postponed their presidential primary election, including Maryland, which Tuesday moved its election date from April 28 to June 2.

The Democratic National Committee issued a statement Tuesday night — after primary elections in Florida, Illinois and Arizona — calling for states like New York to consider switching their elections to vote-by-mail.

“In order to ensure the voices of voters are heard, the DNC is urging the remaining primary states to use a variety of other critical mechanisms that will make voting easier and safer for voters and election officials alike,” said DNC Chairman Tom Perez.

“The simplest tool is vote-by-mail, which is already in use in a number of states and should be made available to all registered voters,” Perez said.

He said states that switch to vote-by-mail elections should proactively send ballots to registered voters now and count all ballots postmarked by the date of the primary.

The good-government group Common Cause New York urged Gov. Andrew Cuomo to take an additional step and delay the April 28 primary election until June 23, when the state will hold its state legislative and federal congressional primaries.

“Generally, we believe that elections should not be postponed, however, the current circumstances require extraordinary measures,” Common Cause said. “Consolidating the primaries is a prudent public health measure that does not undermine our democracy and frees up much needed funding for more immediate public health needs.”

A spokesman for the state Board of Elections said it would require an emergency order from Cuomo or an act of the state Legislature to postpone the April 28 election.

Cuomo said Tuesday he hasn’t given any thought to changing the election date amid the coronavirus outbreak in New York, which has more confirmed cases than any state in the nation.

In addition to Maryland, Democratic presidential primary elections have been postponed in Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana and Ohio.

The Democratic National Committee said states could use additional tools to reduce or eliminate in-person voting. Those measures include no-excuse absentee voting or expanded days and hours for early voting to reduce lines.

New York’s original election plan allows early voting in the presidential primary election from Saturday, April 18 through Sunday, April 26.

Common Cause said the state should require counties to enforce occupancy limits at polling places, allowing no more than 50 people into a polling site at a given time.

The group also encouraged New York lawmakers to provide extra funding through the state budget to county election boards. The money would pay for the cost of prepaid return envelopes for absentee ballots, extra absentee ballots and extra cleaning of polling sites.

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