A Letter to the NYS Board of Elections: Leave Bernie on the Ballot

Dear New York State Board of Elections,

As a Democratic State Committeeman, former Secretary of the Manhattan Democratic County Committee and former Vice President of the Young Democrats of America, I urge you not to remove Bernie Sanders from the June 23 Primary ballot for four reasons:

1. Democrats across the spectrum deserve to have their voices herard. While the outcome of the election may not be contested, the coalition that will bring the Democratic Party to victory in 2020 is broad and diverse.

As much as at anytime in our history, the candidates in the Democratic Primary represent a belief of the policies the Democratic Party should pursue. Healing the divisions between these groups will be made infinitely harder if people are deprived of their sole vehicle for expressing those preferences in a meaningful way.

2. The Democratic Party needs a way to hear what voters want. That way is the Primary. Those of us doing the hard work of voter engagement are constantly telling people to vote in primaries — that it is their way to guide the party. Not only does cutting off our primary make a mockery of that important process, it deprives the Demcoratic Party of the very intent of this election — to poll the constituency of the Party so that it can properly…