A Marist Poll released May 28 shows that no Democratic candidate for Mayor of New York city now enjoys more than 24% of the Democratic electorate. This makes it very likely that a run-off primary will be needed. State law says New York city mayoral primaries need a run-off if no one gets at least 40%. New York city election administration almost certainly will change this year, because the current rules for a mayoral run-off are unworkable. There isn’t enough time to hold a run-off. Thanks to PoliticalWire for the link.
The Legislature has passed adding another week, but it has not been signed by the Governor yet. The Senator approved using the old lever machines for the run-off, but the Assembly has not.
But using lever machines brings many legal problems like: No required paper trail, not ADA compliant, not HAVA or state approved, and not able to display all the new approved languages. There is also the need to get the run-off ballots to overseas and military voters. And finally, many of the lever machines in storage need mechanical repair that will require the expense of cannibalizing machines for parts and finding technicians who know how to fix them and a printer for the lever ballots.