New York cancels Democratic presidential primary despite pleas from Sanders supporters

The Vermont senator dropped out of the race and endorsed Joe Biden

New York has cancelled its Democratic presidential primary in an unprecedented move amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The Democratic members of the State's Board of Elections voted on Monday to forgo the presidential primary, scheduled for 23 June, but will still allow people to vote in the congressional and state-level primaries. All New Yorkers will be allowed the option to vote through absentee ballots.

One reason behind cancelling the presidential primary was the assumption former Vice President Joe Biden already had the candidacy, Democratic election commissioners said.

Mr Biden's last-remaining challenger, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, dropped out of the race on 14 April after underperforming in other state primaries to earn him an insufficient amount of delegates.

Also, New York passed a law on 3 April that gave election commissioners the power to remove any name from the ballot after a candidate suspended their campaign.

But supporters of Mr Sanders have asked the New York Board of Elections to reconsider its decision to cancel the presidential primary.

Although the senator would not be using earned delegates towards earning the candidacy, added numbers could improve his voice in guiding the Democrats platform for the election. This power, supporters have argued, depended on Mr Sanders' ability to still pick up more delegates from upcoming primaries like New York's.

The board's Democratic co-chairman, Douglas Kellner, reviewed thousands of emails from Mr Sanders' supporters before coming to the difficult decision, The New York Times reported.

"What the Sanders campaign wanted is essentially a beauty contest that, given the situation with the public health emergency, seems to be unnecessary and, indeed, frivolous," Mr Kellner said.

Officials said they struggled with the decision to cancel the primary, but they ultimately decided the risk for voters of contracting Covid-19 was too great to justify.

"It just makes so much sense given the extraordinary nature of the challenge," New York Democratic Party chair Jay Jacobs said last week, the Associated Press reported.

Eliminating the presidential primary was expected to decrease voter turnout on 23 June and allow officials to limit the number of polling places on that day.