Anyone who was paying attention on April 19th of 2016, in the presidential primary probably noticed some “irregularities”, which is putting it mildly. Let’s not mince words about it….it was undemocratic. People were dropped off the voter rolls, People’s political party affiliation was switched, without their knowledge or permission, which caused many to be shut out of the closed primary, where only registered Democrats could vote. People were forced to vote by provisional ballot or affidavit ballot if they were not found on voter rolls for the reasons stated above, which were then thrown out or not counted because of said irregularities. For a State that has an actual State Board of Elections who’s only job is to conduct the election, that’s pretty darn pathetic. According to Ari Berman of the Nation, All these problems stem from the fact that New York State is almost dead last in Democratic Best Practices when it comes to our voting rights. Closed primaries are part of the problem because they systematically weed voters out from full participation. They are so restrictive in New York state that they fully disenfranchised over 3 million registered voters during this primary election. It’s like Tammany Hall here… still, in 2016. Even our state’s own illustrious Senator Chuck Schumer thinks we should have open primaries… so, what’s the holdup?

In his New York Times op-ed piece, Schumer states:

“But primaries poison the health of that system and warp its natural balance, because the vast majority of Americans don’t typically vote in primaries. Instead, it is the “third of the third” most to the right or most to the left who come out to vote — the 10 percent at each of the two extremes of the political spectrum. Making things worse, in most states, laws prohibit independents — who are not registered with either party and who make up a growing proportion of the electorate — from voting in primaries at all”.

So, in a state in which the constitution actually prohibits the “disenfranchisement” of any voter:,

“Every citizen shall be entitled to vote at every election for all officers elected by the people and upon all questions submitted to the vote of the people provided that such citizen is eighteen years of age or over and shall have been a resident of this state, and of the county, city, or village for thirty days next preceding an election.”

Why are any political parties or voters openly being locked out of the process? At this point, there is just no more excuse for it.

So, upon thinking about some possible solutions, I remembered reading a story about a NYC lawyer who was suing New York State saying that our closed primaries are unconstitutional and do actually disenfranchise millions of voters. I have given this guy a call, and come to find out the lawsuit is still going on. Here it is in full.

Moody vs New York State Board of Elections Lawsuit PDF by Stephanie Dube Dwilson on Scribd

It is a class action suit, which will be before the court in September to argue the constitutionality of our closed primary system.

I am urging all Political parties to sign on, as well as all voters who were disenfranchised because of the process.

Currently, I am contacting all NY state political parties to sign on to the Class Action lawsuit, as well as doing my best to get individual voters to sign on as well.

To sign your name onto the lawsuit and force the New York Board of Elections to do the right thing, please contact:

Mark Warren Moody Esq

Phone: (917)414-7886 Email: mwm@mwmoody.com

If you have any ideas or comments about how to make our democracy work for everyone again, feel free to comment below! Also, I think I thought of everything in regards to legislative improvements to make our elections fair and open, but I’m sure that I left something out… what did I miss?… comment below.