Former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang is suing the New York State Board of Elections after it voted to remove Sen. Bernie Sanders from the primary ballot, effectively canceling the state’s presidential voting contest.
Yang and seven other plaintiffs, who had planned to serve as his delegates to the Democratic National Convention, filed suit Tuesday, arguing the “unprecedented and unwarranted move infringes the rights of Plaintiffs and all New York State Democratic Party voters” because “it fundamentally denies them the right to choose our next candidate for the office of President of the United States.”
The lawsuit argues that the cancellation of the presidential primary disenfranchises millions of New York voters “by not allowing them to express their preference for candidates that duly qualified for ballot access” and would suppress voter turnout and thus hurt down-ballot candidates.
The state election board voted to remove Sanders from the June 23 primary ballot on Monday, even after the independent Vermont senator said he wanted to continue to collect delegates to exert influence over the party’s platform and rules.
Sanders campaign adviser Jeff Weaver said in a statement Monday that the move was “a blow to American democracy.”
“While we understood that we did not have the votes to win the Democratic nomination, our campaign was suspended, not ended, because people in every state should have the right to express their preference,” Weaver said. “New York has clearly violated its approved delegate selection plan. If this is not remedied, New York should lose all its delegates to the 2020 Democratic National Convention, and there should be a broader review by the Democratic Party of New York’s checkered pattern of voter disenfranchisement.”
