A rumbling of dissatisfaction with President Joe Biden’s handling of the Israel-Palestine war hit the New York State presidential primary on Tuesday, April 2, as he makes a bid for reelection. Some grassroots organizations encouraged voters to leave their ballots blank, which is an extension of the ballot box protests in other states calling for a ceasefire in the conflict.
“Presidential primary elections are unique in that voters are selecting delegates. Delegate allocation is based on the percentage of vote received by a candidate relative to other candidates, not relative to total ballots cast, which could include blanks and/or voids,” said Kathleen R. McGrath, director of public information at the New York State Board of Elections (NYSBOE).
There were three candidates qualified for the Democratic primary ballot via petitions in New York: current President Joe Biden, Congressmember Dean Phillips from Minnesota, and author Marianne Williamson.
To be clear, New York does not have an “uncommitted” or “write-in” option for presidential primary elections. The rules for the 2024 Presidential Primary were passed by the State Legislature, A.7690/S.7550, and signed into law in September 2023, said McGrath. However, blank or void votes were still counted.
“The canvass of the vote must be completed within 13 days of the primary election, and the certification of a primary election happens thereafter,” said McGrath. “The certification, which acts as the official election result, will include all votes cast for candidates, as well as blank and void votes.”
These protests began in New Hampshire’s primary in January, when organizer Rachel Rybaczuk and others urged both Democratic and Republican voters to write-in “ceasefire” on their ballots. As the protest spread to other states, different methods had to be adapted to circumvent various voting laws. In Michigan, for instance, activists promoted the “uncommitted” option on the ballot instead of the write-in.
Rybaczuk has been acting as a national organizer since kicking off the first campaign in her state. She never imagined the movement would resonate with so many people. There have been at least 12 ceasefire campaigns across the country, including in Vermont, California, Washington, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Arizona, and North Carolina. She said shutting down bridges and flooding elected offices with phone calls wasn’t yielding results quickly enough, but the direct impact to votes in a crucial election year will hopefully make the federal government listen.
“It’s impossible to not pay attention for an administration that knows that this is on the minds of millions of voters,” said Rybaczuk, about the protest’s effectiveness. “Even preceding the primary in New Hampshire, there were people expressing their discontent, their outrage, their demand for intervention by the Biden administration.”
In New York, it was the Leave It Blank campaign.
Brittany Ramos DeBarros, an Afro Latina organizer from Staten Island, is the lead organizer of the campaign on the ground. She said they modeled their strategy after Georgia, which also doesn’t have an uncommitted option.
“Taking New York City as an example, we are literally watching our library budgets get cut; afterschool programs, community care programs that are desperately needed are underfunded; our schools are underfunded,” said DeBarros, “And yet we have billions and billions of our tax dollars being sent to be used for weapons and violence.”
The blank ballot campaign is focused solely on the primary since Biden is the assumed candidate to win the nomination, said DeBarros. The intention isn’t for him to lose the presidency, but to start paying attention to voters who are unhappy. There are no plans to encourage voters to leave their ballots blank in November’s general election, she said.
Several local state and city groups joined forces to form the Leave It Blank team, including Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, Jewish Voice for Peace Action, NY Muslim Action Network, Bangladeshi Americans for Political Progress (BAPP), Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), NY Progressive Action Network (NYPAN), and Muslims for Progress.
Jawanza James Williams, director of organizing at VOCAL-NY, said the organization has been full steam behind a call for a ceasefire since last year, pushing for a ceasefire resolution to be passed in the New York City Council. He was gladly in support of the blank ballot strategy, and felt that America as a world political power, bears the responsibility of communicating a message for justice and peace whenever possible.
“I think bringing up the specter of Trump in the context of the Democratic primary [is appropriate] when it comes to Black Americans, Jewish Americans, conscientious Americans, calling for a ceasefire and calling for President Biden to do more,” said Williams, speaking about fears about former President Donald Trump winning the election in November as a result of any protests against Biden. “If we continue to allow them to reduce our conversation to fear-mongering around Trump, it begs the question, what exactly are we voting for?”
The New York Working Families Party (WFP) endorsed the Leave it Blank campaign this past Friday. WFP Co-Director Jasmine Gripper said another impetus behind the campaign was voter engagement, since people who vote in the primary are more likely to vote in the general election.
“Oftentimes, by the time our state gets to vote, the primary is already decided, and we see that’s the case here. Biden already has enough delegates to win the Democratic nomination. Nonetheless, people still have a right to express their values and they can do that at the ballot,” said Gripper. “When voters are not excited about candidates on the ballot, they usually express their discontent by staying home, and that’s not healthy for our democracy when so much is at stake in this election. We wanted to say to voters, ‘Don’t stay home. Use your anger and frustration to vote and leave it blank now in the primary.’”
Quite a few progressive New York officials have also endorsed the blank ballot campaign, including Councilmembers Shahana Hanif, Alexa Aviles, Sandy Nurse, and Tiffany Caban; Assemblymembers Zohran Mamdani, Marcela Mitaynes, and Phara Souffrant Forrest; and Senator Jabari Brisport.
“Leave it Blank NY and the Uncommitted Movement are giving voters an option to voice their dissatisfaction with their tax dollars being spent on genocide and endless war instead of healthcare, housing, climate infrastructure, or any of the millions other things that the American people are crying out for,” said Forrest in a statement.
The NYSBOE encouraged all eligible voters to vote in the presidential primary and cast a ballot however they chose, said McGrath. The unofficial primary election results indicated that on Election Night on April 2, Biden scored 143,891 votes or 91.53%. There is currently no blank ballot count because the results need to be certified first, which might take weeks, said NYSBOE.
However, the WFP has guessed that the blank vote count is about 12% based on their early calculations.
For information about elections and voting this year in the April and June primaries, please visit NYS’s website at elections.ny.gov/ or NYC’s website at www.nycvotes.org/.
[updated Wed, April 3]
Ariama C. Long is a Report for America corps member who writes about politics for the Amsterdam News. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep her writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting https://bit.ly/amnews1.