By Arthur Schwartz
New Yorkers finally get to jump into the Presidential Primary process on Tuesday April 19. Polling places are open from 6 am to 9 pm. If you are not sure where you vote call 1-866-votenyc (866-868-3692) or type pollsitelocator.nyc into your computer or smartphone. Most people in the West Village vote at PS 41 on West 11th Street, PS3 on Hudson Street, WestBeth Community Room on Bank Street, the Gay and Lesbian Center on West 13th Street,
and City as Schools High School on Clarkson Street.
For those of you who haven’t voted since the last Presidential election, the voting machines have changed. When you enter the voting location and sign in, you get a paper ballot which will look like the one printed below. You fill in the circles next to the name of who you are voting for (using a pencil) and then feed it into a machine which reads it. The machine will spit it back out if you have made a mistake.
Leave lots of time. During Presidential Primaries more people vote than usual and many don’t know which Election District to go to. Bring a book or a newspaper or some music to listen too.
The first thing you will do is vote for a Presidential Candidate, BUT YOU WILL NOT JUST BE VOTING FOR A PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE (unless you are a Republican, which means you will simply choose between Trump, Cruz and Kasich.) If you are a Democrat you get to vote for delegates to the Democratic National Convention).
We have 6 delegate slots allocated to the 10th Congressional District. The ballot will show 6 pledged to Bernie Sanders and 6 pledged to Hillary Clinton. How those six are allocated is based on the Presidential Candidate’s vote in our District (ie, if its 50-50, each side gets three delegates.) The delegates get ranked in order of the number of votes they receive, individually, so your vote matters a lot. For example, if you want to see Westview contributor Arthur Schwartz go to the Convention and blog for Westview you need to vote for him; which you can do even if you voted for Hillary. If you want Comptroller Scott Stringer to go, you can vote for him even if you voted for Bernie.
There have been reports of voting records disappearing. If you get to the polls and your name is not on the register, insist on voting by affidavit ballot. Then contact WestView and we will work to make sure that your vote counts.
WestView wants our readers to go into the voting booth ready to vote, so we are providing you with a sample ballot, a photo and a brief bio on the delegate candidates you will be choosing amongst. Some candidates you will know about, some you don’t. Our guide can open the door to further exploration and an informed electorate!
Meet the Candidates
SUPPORTING BERNIE SANDERS
Jenine Lurie: Founder of Disruptive Experience, a design and technology consulting team; builder of a multi-lingual website for Local 32B-32J Building Service Union members
Allen Roskoff: long-time gay activist, author of NYC Gay Rights Law, former Gay Liaison for Public Advocate Mark Green; President of Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club
Jessica Frisco: Health Policy Intern at Milbank Memorial Fund; Candidate for Masters in Public Health at Columbia; former President of National Student Nurses Association
Arthur Schwartz: Greenwich Village Democratic District Leader, labor and civil rights lawyer; President of Advocates for Justice
Laine Armstrong: civil rights and employment discrimination lawyer; Board President of One Healing Arts Company
Tom Duane: retired City Council Member for the 3rd District, and State Senator for the Village, Chelsea, and Hell’s Kitchen
SUPPORTING HILLARY CLINTON
Scott Stringer: Current NYC Comptroller, former Manhattan Borough President, former member of NYS Assembly from the Upper West Side
Betsy Gotbaum: former NYC Public Advocate, NYC Parks Commissioner, and President of the New York Historical Society
George Miranda: Vice President at Large of Teamsters Union; President of Teamsters Joint Council 16; Secretary Treasurer of Teamsters Local 210
Deborah Glick: Assembly mem
ber for Greenwich Village, Soho, and Tribeca since 1990; former Deputy Director at NYC Department of Housing and Urban Development
Richard Socarides: Head of Public Affairs at Gerson Lehrman Group (GLG); former Special Assistant to President Bill Clinton; writer for The New Yorker
Nancy Tong: Documentary Filmmaker at Fishtail Soup Productions; Visiting Associate Professor at the University of Hong Kong’s Journalism and Media Studies Center
You know this kind of information was difficult to find out. Ballotpedia didn’t have it.
By the way do you realize that, I think, 60% of the 10th Congressional district is in Brooklyn? And not downtown Brooklyn. But all the candidates are from Manhattan.
Apparently Nancy Tong is from Brooklyn – some part of Brooklyn, She made some documentaries on Muslim women in Moslem countries.