A voter cast a ballot inside the Brooklyn Central Library during the June 28th primary.did more than split the state’s primary election. It also set the stage for a one-off test of a type of open primary election, where registered voters can change their party affiliation up until, and including on Primary Day itself, August 23rd., the deadline to change one’s party affiliation is normally February 14th, and then the window is closed until one week after the June primary.
When the court ordered a second primary date for August as part of the redistricting decision, it created a loophole in the law permitting people to change parties or switch from being an unaffiliated voter to a party member right up until the election. The law was written assuming there would only be one primary, and it would be in June.
“This year is an anomaly,” Vincent Ignizio, deputy executive director of the New York City Board of Elections , told Gothamist, noting that voters can change their party affiliation now or by requesting an affidavit ballot at the voting booth. In New York City, which has more than 5 million registered voters, only 3.4 million are registered Democrats. That’s also the party that tends to have the city’s most competitive primary races. That means more than 1.6 million voters who are members of other parties, or no party at all, could see what’s happening in the district where they live and may want to change parties just for this election.