State may be forced to move Primary Day

When the feds say "jump," New York likes to take its time before asking, "How high?"

This state, for example, famously trailed the rest of the country in the federally mandated introduction of electronic voting machines.

Now, in a move insiders say could rock the state's campaign dynamics -- eventually -- the Justice Department is trying to force Albany to move up the date of its primaries.

A 2009 law, sponsored by Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), provides for those in the military to have adequate time to receive and send back absentee ballots for elections in November. That means holding primaries at least 80 days before a federal election, the department says.

But the State Legislature adjourned in spring without acting on bills to make that happen. So Northern District U.S. Attorney Richard Hartunian this week asked a judge upstate to order the change for 2012.

This raises the odd chance of primaries in August -- when many citizens are away and unlikely to participate. Non-partisan advocates who monitor voting issues say pre-Labor Day contests would set a new low in already anemic Primary Day turnouts.

"There would be an extremely large falloff," said Neal Rosenstein, who has tracked these issues for decades for the New York Public Interest Research Group. He said any legislature that sets primaries in August would be "sending the message that it doesn't care or want people to know about them."

When Nassau held a referendum on Coliseum borrowing on Aug. 1, unofficial returns showed a turnout of about 17.3 percent of registered voters.

Bear in mind, however, that on Primary Day last week, a well-hyped special election for Congress in New York City drew a reported turnout shy of 19 percent -- a hint of problems that go deeper than scheduling.

Still, if a September primary is too close to the general election to give soldiers a fair chance to vote, many observers and officials believe it better to set the primaries for June.

A list recently published on the Daily Kos website indicates 23 states hold their primaries in either May or June; another six are in March or April; 14 in August. Six more, including New York, hold primaries in September.

New York, in fact, held June primaries until 1974. In years leading up to the change, however, the Legislature commonly recessed before June. Since sessions now run later, some incumbents have expressed private concern that with a June primary, they'd be tied up in Albany at a crucial political moment, unable to campaign in the district.

There is a broader question of how a four-month interlude between primary and general election would change campaign strategies.

There's even chatter about a loopier concept -- holding one set of early primaries for the federal races and keeping the others in September, making it all more complicated and expensive.

"Overriding all of this should be a motivation to make sure the military and overseas voters don't lose their franchise," said Barbara Bartoletti of the state League of Women Voters. "The Legislature, if it cares about voters, would go with one primary, and it would be in June."

Schumer himself, through spokesman Michael Morey, offered state officials no advice, other than to make sure the goals of the law are carried out.

Sounds muddled? Look at it this way: Scanning machines are finally in place after years of delay. Now just stay tuned for another glacial process to decide the dates on which you use the machines -- provided you're in the minority of citizens in the habit of voting.