Albany, NY – Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz, who has been leading a push for three key adjustments to upcoming primary elections in New York State, succeeded in including in the new state budget a provision to clean up the ballots by only listing the remaining active candidates and their delegates on the ballot for June 23. New York’s registered Democrats will now vote on ballots that only contain the remaining active Presidential candidates when they vote in the (recently moved) June 23 primary election.

Over the past several weeks, Dinowitz has been actively advocating for the simplification of Presidential primary ballots along with a move of the Presidential primary date and temporarily expanding absentee ballot access during a public health crisis. Now, thanks to the state budget and an Executive Order from the Governor, Dinowitz is two-thirds of the way towards accomplishing his bill’s goals which will make it easier and safer for New Yorkers to vote.

The issue of complicated and lengthy ballots for the Presidential primary was compounded by the vast number of candidates who successfully qualified for the ballot in New York State – along with up to eight candidates for delegate each to the Democratic National Convention. However, between the time when candidates were qualifying for the ballot and now, all but two Democratic contenders for President have suspended their campaigns (and consequently the campaigns for their delegate candidates). If the ballots were not cleaned up, voters would have had to vote using ballots with many pages of names – the vast majority of whom are not actively seeking the office which they originally pursued.

The remaining issue of absentee ballots is complicated by the fact that rules around eligibility are included in the New York State Constitution. The New York State Legislature has already passed legislation to begin the Constitutional amendment process in New York for no-excuse absentee voting, but identical legislation must be passed by the next class of state legislators and then ratified by statewide popular vote. Assemblyman Dinowitz’s proposal aims to stay within the confines of the Constitution by limiting the expansion of absentee ballot eligibility only temporarily for this year’s primaries.

Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz (D - Bronx) said: “One of the understated challenges to democracy is ballots that people don’t understand and find overwhelming. With everything that is going on in the world, it is imperative that as many New Yorkers as possible are able to easily and effectively cast their ballots to decide our Presidential candidate as well as numerous candidates for Congress, the New York State Legislature, and party positions. I will keep fighting for absentee voting for all during the ongoing pandemic, but cleaner ballots (along with the fact that the Presidential primary has been moved from April 28 to June 23) are important steps in the right direction.”