Saturday, November 10, 2012

For those who want to quit Republican Party membership in NY State, here is the form. Boehner can do whatever he wants and I don't care because I quit!

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For those who want to quit Republican Party membership in NY State, here is the form with which to do it. 

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More on New York State's strict political party registration rules:

10/4/12, 2013 New York Primary Voting Requires Any Party Changes by Oct. 12,” NY Times, Chen

"New York State has one of the most unforgiving rules in the country when it comes to eligibility for voting in party primaries. Anyone who wants to vote in the 2013 Democratic mayoral primary — and all of the anticipated major candidates are Democrats — but is not affiliated with a party (like Mr. Bloomberg), or wants to switch parties (as Mr. Bloomberg once did), must take action almost a year before the actual vote.

The law is rooted in the notion that closed primaries should not be raided, at the last minute, by outsiders who may want to pick, say, a weaker candidate to run against their preferred choice in a general election. And it is a law that has survived numerous court challenges, including a case from the 1970s that was upheld by the United States Supreme Court.

But government watchdogs say that the rule could disenfranchise tens of thousands of New Yorkers who will discover next year that they cannot vote in the election that could determine the next mayor of the nation’s largest city. 

By contrast, New Jersey allows unaffiliated voters to declare a political party on the day of a primary and vote on the spot.

“The situation here in New York is yet another manifestation of the stranglehold that political parties have on election administration — a stranglehold which is choking our democracy,” said Susan Lerner, executive director of Common Cause New York. “Most people don’t pay attention until, at best, a month before the election — that’s just the way life is lived in the 21st century. This, however, is an apparatus from the 19th century.”

Actually, the law has been
on the books since at least 1949, according to John W. Conklin, a spokesman for the New York State Board of Elections. And Doug Chapin, an elections expert at the University of Minnesota who runs the information clearinghouse electionline.org, said that he could not think of another state with a closed primary that required such lengthy advance notice of a party change.

Of 3.9 million active registered voters in New York City, 2.68 million are Democrats, 441,000 are Republicans and 666,000 have no affiliation. 

People who register to vote after Oct. 12 — because they are not currently registered, or are registered in another state — are not affected by the deadline. 

Several likely candidates for office next year are urging voters to register as Democrats now."...



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