New York just fucking cancels its Primary

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

Technically no, those are decided at the party conventions. The delegates to the convention are determined by the Primaries and Caucuses. I don't know how that effects things, but after seeing the GOP risk people's lives to force on through in Wisconsin, New York wasn't going to chance it.

Except it's NOT a choice between lives and voting! Vote By Mail is a perfectly valid option!

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

OK... but haven't the nominees already been decided? Of course the Republicans are going to put forward Trump, and even Sanders has thrown in the towel and has endorsed Biden. Sure you're losing a bit of an opportunity for symbolic gesturing, but given the choice between that and risking the spread of infection this doesn't seem like a horrible decision.

Except it's not a choice between spreading infection or not! There's a thing called "vote by mail!" It still affects how delegates are allocated, and there's a little thing called right in votes. Even if there's only one likely candidate, you still have a thing called write-in votes, Bernie is still technically on the ballot, and like...cancelling elections is...bad? It's disturbing?

Don't just "oh well" this!

lol there's no way bernie will win by write in.

They will end the election when it's past the post. They straight up stop counting state electors once they find a winner.

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

He won't WIN by write in, but he can get enough non-writein votes to get delegates that will give him leveraging power. And even if there is no way for him to win, just...cancelling the whole primary? That's messed up.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

Sounds drastic and a breach of democratic principles and not good example of establishment censorship on the new left on at least some level but I trust that the decision is come to by measure under a reasonably unprecedented circumstance with no apparent impact on the election outcome.

Of course given that it's New York that's a bit of an off-switch to jolt.

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

Glad you trust. I don't.

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

Cody Johnston
@drmistercody
·
Apr 27
If I opposed Trump and was worried about him using the pandemic as an excuse to postpone the election, one thing I wouldn't do is set that precedent by cancelling a primary.

[Eishtmo]

Except it's NOT a choice between lives and voting! Vote By Mail is a perfectly valid option!

It could be a choice, yes, but there may be more to it than that. Is there a deadline to get it done by? Can you get enough ballots out to those who want it in time to return them? Do you have the manpower to sort the ballots? Will the Post Office be around in time for it?

I suspect they probably did consider it, but decided they couldn't for those reasons or others.

Now if they tried to cancel the ACTUAL election in November, then I would raise all sorts of hell. But as this isn't really a required part of selecting our leaders, I'm not all that broken up about it.

[JoeThree]

I object on principle to this cancellation, but practically... eh. I can't be arsed to care. Biden's got the nomination and subsequent loss to Trump in the bag.

[Captain Crimson]

I object on principle to this cancellation, but practically... eh. I can't be arsed to care. Biden's got the nomination and subsequent loss to Trump in the bag.

This has me feeling torn, admittedly. On the one hand, Mr. 45's language is horrible. Like encouraging people to drink bleach. You can call it a joke all you want, but his persona is that of an online troll, so it's not out of the realm of possibility. One must at least concede to that. On the other... what I dislike about Mr. Biden is that everything about him, his retro views, his gaffes, and potentially his choice in a running mate which trust me, is going to be a woman, has me feeling like nothing's really changed in a hundred years, and we're going backwards at lightning speed. This is why I want politics out of entertainment. It's getting just hopeless IRL.

[TGLS]

What if Biden chose to surprise everyone by making Obama his running mate? He has lots of experience running countries, but does he have enough experience in doing nothing and eating sandwiches? Is there a rule that says an ex-president can't be vice-president?