Voter id laws disfranchise people. Not being registered for the right party is not disfranchisement.
— John Cole (@Johngcole) April 17, 2016
Oh, the “irony”. Their once-upon-a-dream Pure Artisanal Unicorn candidate shows up, and the discerning seekers can’t vote for him, because rules, ugh. The NYTimes reports:
As the New York primary approaches, many of Senator Bernie Sanders’s most energetic and enthusiastic supporters are members of the small but influential Working Families Party.
They have donated money, planted signs in their yards, organized rallies and phone banks, and knocked on thousands of doors on behalf of the man who many of them view as a once-in-a-lifetime dream candidate who shares their own left-of-center values.
There is just one hitch: They cannot vote for him on Tuesday…
Mr. Mays and other members of the party cannot vote for Mr. Sanders, who represents Vermont in the Senate, because New York has a closed primary system that lets voters participate only in the primary of the party indicated on their voter registration.
That means only Democrats can vote for Mr. Sanders or his opponent, Hillary Clinton. And only Republicans can cast ballots in the contest here among Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, Gov. John Kasich of Ohio and Donald J. Trump…
“It’s disappointing on my part to not be part of history,” Mr. Bettez said, recalling his vote for Barack Obama for president in 2008. “I knew I was part of something that was big and I would tell my grandkids that I voted for Barack Obama. In the same way I wish I could tell my grandkids that I voted for Bernie Sanders in the New York State primary.”…
The existence of a closed primary in New York should not have come as a surprise to any inhabitant who considered themselves politically aware. There’s no reason why a committed Independent voter couldn’t have reregistered as a Democrat to vote for Sanders, and then switched back next cycle. But then, some voters are just very special snowflakes. Some kind of flakes, anyway. And Bernie Sanders is their king, according to the Washington Post:
… Without independents in those other states, Sanders probably would’ve been sunk long ago.
In Michigan, where Sanders won his greatest upset, Clinton beat him by 18 points among self-identified Democrats, according to exit polls. In Oklahoma, one of the few states that Clinton won in 2008’s primary but lost this year, she beat Sanders by nine points with Democrats. In Wisconsin, Sanders won overall by 13 points; he split the Democratic vote with Clinton 50-50.
In each case, independents who felt like pulling a Democratic ballot were able to vote for Sanders. In New York, many of the people who crowded Sanders’s rallies — some lining up for hours, Bernie buttons on their winter coats — admitted that they had not understood that New York’s rules were different.
“Nobody told us that we had to re-register,” said Toni Lantz, 24, who waited three hours to see Sanders speak in Rochester. “I’ve been an independent since I was 18. I didn’t like the choices until now; I consider myself to be more in the middle.”
Some did check the rules but couldn’t bring themselves to become Democrats.