Five would-be delegates each for Obama and for Hillary Clinton will appear on the ballots of Democratic presidential primary voters on Feb. 5 - along with the candidates themselves, of course - in the Congressional Districts that cover Long Island. Nassau and Suffolk Democrats may also pick John Edwards, Bill Richardson, Joe Biden or Dennis J. Kucinich, but without their own delegate names on the ballot. Mike Gravel and Chris Dodd didn't petition their way onto the New York ballot.
For the official posting of who's on the ballot, both presidential candidates and would-be delegates in each Congressional District, click here.
For registered Democrats, there's a bizarre quirk: If you pull the lever for all five of your favorite candidate's delegates, you cancel out your own votes. That's because, under the party's equal-representation rules, female candidates dedicated to the same presidential hopeful compete statewide against each other for delegate slots, as do the males. So Barry McCoy, a member of the Democratic state committee from Suffolk's 4th Assembly District, suggests voters pick a male delegate and a female delegate for Clinton, and one each for Obama. Doing so makes your preferences count without detracting from your presidential candidate's overall delegate share.
New York Republicans do not have this problem, since they do not choose delegates in their primary, only a presidential candidate. On the GOP side, the delegates are not apportioned according to the vote. It is a winner-take-all contest. There are more candidates to choose from if you're a registered Republican: the names are Rudy Giuliani, Mike Huckabee, John McCain, Ron Paul, Mitt Romney, Alan Keyes and Duncan Hunter. Tom Tancredo is also on the list, although he's dropped out and endorsed Romney.
Dan Janison
Comments (1)
huh?