New Yorkers, the 2024 voting season is here and presidential candidates aren’t the only ones on the ballots — with three different election days this year.
While the race for the Oval Office is grabbing all the attention, don’t sleep on what else will be on your ballot. Here’s a quick guide for voters on the year in politics:
The first primary: Presidential
The presidential primary took place on Tuesday, April 2.
For Democrats, two other candidates appeared on the ballot besides President Joe Biden: Rep. Dean Phillips, a House representative from Minnesota running on a Medicare for All platform, and Marianne Williamson, the spiritual leader and author.
However, those candidates ran largely symbolically as both Biden and former president Donald Trump have each clinched their parties’ nominations with primary wins earlier this month.
What’s up with blank ballots?
Some progressive Democrats encouraged those who want to protest the president’s support of Israel to submit blank ballots in the presidential primary. It’s was an effort to replicate protest-vote actions taken by pro-Palestinian Democrats in other states, most notably Michigan, to push Biden for a full ceasefire in Gaza. In New York City, 15% of Democratic voters in the primary left their ballots blank, City & State reported.
The second primary: State districts and Congress
Get ready to vote all over again on June 25 when New York has its second primary of 2024. That election will include all state-level seats — for the state Assembly and Senate — as well as Congressional contests.
Who will be on your ballot? Earlier this spring, candidates petitioned to get on the ballot (more on that below) and as of early May, the candidate lineup has been set. You can look up your sample ballot with this address lookup tool from the city Board of Elections.
Wait, am I even in the same district? Didn’t the lines change?
There’s been a lot of back and forth about the shape of political boundaries in New York, and the last chapter came in late February when Albany lawmakers adopted a new Congressional map that slightly altered previous lines, affecting only one House district in New York City — the northwest Bronx represented by Rep. Jamaal Bowman. Below is Bowman’s newly drawn district map:
See the full map at https://newyork.redistrictingandyou.org
Petitioning: Why were candidates on the street asking for signatures?
All the candidates running in June’s primary worked to ensure their name appears on that ballot. To do that, they needed to collect a lot of signatures. That process is called petitioning, and it happens in March and early April. Here’s our guide on the petition process, including advice from experts on whether or not you should sign a petition if asked.
Big dollars, public matching: Changes to campaign finance system
Another factor at play this election season: Donations to state campaigns are now potentially eligible for taxpayer-covered campaign funds to match donations from supporters who live in the district. The system will use public dollars to match donations up to $250.
The new campaign finance scheme is already affecting races for state offices, THE CITY and New York Focus previously reported. The system is intended to make it easier for non-incumbents to launch races, and for candidates without deep pockets to run.
Are New York voters using ranked choice voting in 2024?
No, there is no ranked choice voting in this year’s primaries because ranked choice applies only to local New York City races, and this year’s primaries are for state and federal offices.
Can non-U.S. citizens vote in New York’s 2024 elections?
No, non-citizens cannot vote in any New York elections. Though city lawmakers passed a local law in 2022 that would have paved the way for some non-citizen residents to vote in city elections, it faced immediate legal challenges and a state appeals court ruled in February that the law was unconstitutional.
What else is on the ballot in 2024?
For the general election, there may be one other thing on the ballot: a question for voters on whether to amend the state constitution.
But a lawsuit, for now, has stopped that in its tracks.
The ballot measure would seek to update the state constitution’s Equal Protection Clause to enshrine equal protection of the law for citizens regardless of their “ethnicity, national origin, age [or] disability,” or their “sex, including sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, pregnancy outcomes, and reproductive healthcare and autonomy.” Read more about the proposal here from Ballotpedia, the nonpartisan digital encyclopedia nonprofit.
In early May, an upstate judge threw the question off the ballot over a procedural issue with the way the legislature approved the proposal. Unless an expedited appeal moves forward quickly — and appeals judges side with the defendants — the question will likely stay off voters’ ballots.