New York state has 63 State Senators. On March 6, 26 Democratic State Senators signed a letter expressing support for fusion. This virtually guarantees that any proposed bill to abolish fusion in New York state will not pass. See this story.
New York state has 63 State Senators. On March 6, 26 Democratic State Senators signed a letter expressing support for fusion. This virtually guarantees that any proposed bill to abolish fusion in New York state will not pass. See this story.
I wonder what Mike Long (or whoever his replacement is), and the rest of the fusion party leaders think about this.
That’s good. Fusion voting needs to be reformed, not abolished. It shouldn’t be possible for Republicans to run fake candidates on the Green Party line to siphon votes away from Democrats, but it should be possible for third parties to make cross-endorsement deals with other parties. That the Greens and Libertarians refuse to use that power is their problem, not anyone else’s.
It makes no sense for the Greens and Libertarians to run fusion candidates. They’re too different. And a fusion candidacy would result in a very uncomfortable struggle for leadership and direction between groups with highly disparate goals.
New York should adopt a blanket primary where any registered party member could vote for any candidate. The nominee of each party would be the candidate who received the most votes from voters of that party. The confusion of ballot lines would be eliminated. Parties could retain their ballot status based on number registrants.