A guide to the June 23rd primary

The coronavirus hasn’t delayed New York’s June 23 Democratic primary. In fact, it has added to the ballot a presidential contest – rescheduled from April 28, then cancelled (which prompted a lawsuit from candidate Andrew Yang), then restored, then challenged again in court, then affirmed – where 10 candidates who’ve suspended their campaigns will compete for delegates to August’s Democratic National Convention against presumptive nominee Joe Biden.

All New York Democrats will have a chance to vote in the presidential primary, but the rest of the ballot will vary from one district to another. In Kings County, voters will choose nominees for the U.S. House of Representatives, State Senate, and State Assembly, as well a host of minor offices: State Committee (synonymous, within the Brooklyn Democratic Party, with the position of District Leader), County Committee, Judge of the Civil Court, Delegate to the Judicial Convention, and Alternate Delegate to the Judicial Convention.

Thanks to the early retirement of Bushwick legislator Rafael Espinal, one district in Brooklyn will even have a nomination for City Council (which otherwise will hold elections in 2021) up for grabs. It all sounds like a lot, but most ballots will be of manageable length – particularly in districts where incumbents go unchallenged.

Anyone who registered to vote as a Democrat by May 29, 2020, can participate in the Democratic primary. Voters who previously registered with another party or as independents can take part if they changed their registration to Democrat by February 14, 2020.

How do I vote?
The best way to vote during a pandemic is to cast an absentee ballot – a measure normally reserved for voters on vacation, in the hospital, or otherwise incapacitated. To avoid a public health catastrophe, an executive order issued on April 9 made all New Yorkers eligible to vote from home for reason of “Temporary Illness or Physical Disability” (the excuse applies even for healthy voters, due to the risk of illness).

To vote absentee, you need to apply first. This means filling out a brief form. On April 24, Governor Cuomo announced that every registered voter in the state would receive an absentee ballot application with prepaid postage in the mail, but in New York City, voters also can easily apply online at nycabsentee.com until June 16. The deadline is the same for postmarked applications.

If you miss this deadline, you can still apply in person for an absentee ballot at the local Board of Elections office (345 Adams Street, 4 Fl, Brooklyn, NY 11201, open 9 am to 5 pm, Monday to Friday) through June 22. The BOE office can also directly accept the ballot itself, which otherwise must be in USPS’s hands by June 22. Fill out your absentee ballot carefully – follow instructions!

Despite the risk of COVID-19 transmission, polling stations will also be open on election day. You can find yours at nyc.pollsitelocator.com. Between June 13 and June 21, New York also expects to offer early voting, which will take place at the Red Hook Recreation Center among other places. For more voting information, call 1-866-868-3692.

Who’s on the ballot?
It depends on where you live. The nyc.pollsitelocator.com website will show you a sample ballot (click “Ballot Information” at the top-right corner of the page after you’ve entered your address). In early June, the New York City Campaign Finance Board will publish a voters’ guide with additional candidate information at nyccfb.info.

Nearly all Red Hook residents live in Congressional District 7, Senate District 25, and Assembly District 51. A tiny minority, however, live in Assembly District 52 (where, without a challenger, incumbent Jo Anne Simon will receive the Democratic nomination by default), and a few more live in Congressional District 10 (see “Boylan and Herzog challenge Nadler in NY-10”).

In Congressional District 7, the rapper Paperboy Prince – who found a measure of YouTube fame last year as a musical advocate for presidential candidate Andrew Yang – has mounted a long-shot challenge against Nydia Velazquez, who has served Red Hook in the House of Representatives since 1993. Like Yang, Prince has centred his campaign on a universal basic income of $1,000 per month (along with a promise to “spread love to everyone”).

On the state level, three candidates – democratic socialist Jabari Brisport, progressive Jason Salmon, and establishment favorite Tremaine Wright – will compete for an open seat in Senate District 25. And in Assembly District 51, several insurgents – community activist Genesis Aquino, tenant organizer Marcela Mitaynes, and urban planner Katherine Walsh – will face off against Assistant Speaker Felix Ortiz, who has represented Red Hook in Albany since 1995.

Do I have to care about any of the other stuff?
Technically, no. If you don’t want to think about Alternate Delegates to the Judicial Convention, you can leave that field blank.

In fact, if you live in Red Hook, it won’t show up on your ballot in the first place. But in case you’re interested: the party’s judicial delegates select nominees for judgeships on the New York Supreme Court at a convention prior to the general election in November, when voters will elect the judges themselves – the alternates step in if the delegates can’t fulfill their duties. (The delegates and their alternates, however, typically take their cues from higher-ups within the party, and the voters have to make do with predetermined slates that may run unopposed.)

In Red Hook, the only slightly obscure position that will appear on the ballot is State Committee, also known as District Leader. Each Assembly District has two District Leaders, a man and a woman. In Assembly District 51, the new District Leader will primarily provide volunteer labor to the Brooklyn Democratic Party. They’ll also endorse judicial candidates, cast a vote for the next local party boss (or “county leader”) – currently Assemblywoman Rodneyse Bichotte – and help choose the New York State Democratic Committee’s representatives within the membership of the Democratic National Committee.

Assembly District 51’s current male District Leader is also its longtime assemblyman, Felix Ortiz. Ortiz, who seeks reelection in the Assembly, will step down as District Leader and hopes to see Red Hook civic leader Robert Berrios take his place. His opponent Julio Peña III – an aspiring party reformer from Sunset Park, now serving on County Committee – has campaigned in tandem with Katherine Walsh, one of Ortiz’s opponents in the Assembly race.

District Leader is a party position, not a government position. For this role, therefore, there will be no general election.

What if I’m a Republican?
June 23 is also the date of New York’s Republican primary, but not a lot of Republican candidates are running. In New York City, there are four in total.

In Congressional District 11, the GOP will likely nominate Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis to take on U.S. Representative Max Rose, a Blue Dog Democrat who upset a Republican incumbent in 2018, but she must first defeat Donald Trump enthusiast Joe Calderara, who has cast Malliotakis as insufficiently conservative. A subset of the same voters will choose between U.S. Marine Marko Kepi and prosecutor Michael Tannousis to replace Malliotakis in Assembly District 64, which Democrat Brandon Patterson will contest in November.

If you’re a Republican and you don’t live in Staten Island, Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights, Bath Beach, or Gravesend, you don’t need to worry about casting a ballot this month.