In the general election in November, the polls are open at 6 a.m.; I’ve often voted by 6:15. The school budget vote in May allows voting by 7 a.m.
But the polls on Primary Day, which is Tuesday, September 9 this year, don’t open until noon, at least in that tiny part of New York known as upstate. In New York City and the counties of Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester, Rockland, Orange, Putnam (and Erie!) the polls open at 6 a.m.; very civilized.
Worse this year, I don’t think there’s been an inordinate amount of information on the judge races. The Democratic primary race for Albany County Surrogate Court Judge between Stacy L. Pettit and Richard J. Sherwood I know nothing about, other than the minor controversy over Sherwood citing himself as a judge on his campaign posters, and whether that suggests he’s the incumbent for THIS particular position; apparently not. I’m glad that the League of Women Voters has some info on this contest.
Then there’s the race for a seat in the Supreme Court’s Third Judicial District, to fill the vacancy created by the retirement of Justice Joseph Teresi. This created a controversy so complicated, involving county Democratic chairman Matthew Clyne’s overreach, that I’m hard-pressed to explain it to people and just send them this TU opinion link.
The candidates themselves do not appear on the ballot, I believe, only their potential supporters, hoping to go to the Democratic Party’s Judicial Nominating Convention in mid-September to help select the party’s candidate for a slot for an area covering Albany, Columbia, Greene, Rensselaer, Schoharie, Sullivan and Ulster Counties.
Currently, all ten judges are white males. Here are the supporters of Margaret Walsh, who fought to get on the ballot. I found the Justin Corcoran for Supreme Court Facebook page; he’s the party leadership’s choice.
In the race for governor, she’ll probably not win, but I have to assume that Zephyr Teachout will do better than the 20% that Casey Seiler predicted. (I also HATED his characterization of her as “Eleanor Roosevelt crossed with Big Bird.” She’s won favor with the anti-Common Core groups, the pro-environmentalists (I got my Mark Ruffalo robocall), and those people who just don’t much like Andrew Cuomo ducking debates, or bullying other politicians away from endorsing Teachout/Wu.
I didn’t even know Randy Credico was also on the ballot for governor until the last two weeks.
If Tim Wu should win the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor – a distinct possibility – Cuomo, if HE wins, will have Wu as his running mate on the Democratic line, but Kathy Hochul as his running mate on the Working Families Party line. (Also got my Hillary Clinton robocall for Cuomo and mostly for Hochul.) As I understand it, the only way to dump Hochul is to find some judgeship to give her, and within a week of the primary. This assumes Wu would accept the WFP designation at this point; Teachout and Wu had sought that party’s endorsement, unsuccessfully.
What have I missed?
