ALBANY – The state Board of Elections called off New York's Democratic presidential primary on Monday, effectively designating former Vice President Joe Biden as the winner of the state's delegates.

The board's two Democratic commissioners, Douglas Kellner and Andrew Spano, met briefly Monday to approve a resolution eliminating all candidates from the ballot except Biden – as all other Democrats, including Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, have suspended their campaigns.

"Joe Biden is the only candidate and, therefore, he is effectively the winner of the New York primary," Kellner said.

The primary had been scheduled to take place Tuesday but was postponed to late June amid efforts to mitigate the spread of the novel coronavirus, which has been blamed for killing more than 17,000 people statewide.

Holding elections only for contested primaries would reduce voter turnout by about 70 percent, elections officials said. Roughly 1.9 million people voted in the Democratic presidential primary in 2016, compared to nearly 600,000 for state, local and congressional primaries. That decrease also cuts the need for poll workers, who are usually older and more vulnerable to COVID-19, they said.

The latter primaries will continue as scheduled on June 23.

"I've come to the conclusion that we should minimize the number of people on the ballot, minimize the election for the protection of everybody, but give the opportunity to vote in the actual elections for candidates and not have anyone on the ballot just for the purposes of issues at a convention," Spano said.

The decision was quickly rebuked by Sanders supporters, who said the move would suppress voters' rights. They also noted that the Vermont senator, when dropping out of the race earlier this month, had said that he intended to stay on the ballot in remaining primaries to continue gathering delegates and to push the Democratic Party's platform further to the left at the Democratic National Convention in August.

Sanders' camp condemned the decision Monday afternoon, with senior adviser Jeff Weaver calling the cancellation "an outrage" and "a blow to American democracy" that the Democratic National Committee should overturn. The DNC must ultimately approve any changes to New York's plan to allocate its 274 delegates to the convention.

"While we understood that we did not have the votes to win the Democratic nomination, our campaign was suspended, not ended, because people in every state should have the right to express their preference," Weaver said in a statement. "What the Board of Elections is ignoring is that the primary process not only leads to a nominee but also the selection of delegates which helps determine the platform and rules of the Democratic Party. No one asked New York to cancel the election."

If the decision isn't changed, New York "should lose all its delegates to the 2020 Democratic National Convention, and there should be a broader review by the Democratic Party of New York’s checkered pattern of voter disenfranchisement," Weaver said.

Sanders delegates across the state reiterated those concerns on Monday. Assemblyman Phil Steck, D-Colonie, a Sanders delegate who endorsed Biden after the senator dropped out of the race, said it is a "mistake" to cancel the primary, as it will keep some grassroots Sanders supporters – who otherwise would not have a platform – from voicing their opinions at the convention.

"It’s not just about whether the delegates go to Joe Biden or not," he said. "It’s about the identity of what the delegates believe in."

Joseph Henderson, a Sanders delegate from Saranac Lake, said the decision was "super confusing" as the state moves forward with congressional, state and local primaries. Many delegates – who had spent countless hours collecting signatures in every corner of the state – are "angry," and there are discussions of a legal challenge, he said.

"To see this happen – to see voters not even get a chance to express their opinion – it seems really undemocratic," he said.

The commissioners said Sanders' intent to continue garnering delegates only indicated that he would not proactively remove his name from the ballot, and officials still had the legal ability to remove a candidate who had suspended their campaign. The state Legislature had included that provision in the state budget earlier this month.

"What the Sanders supporters want is essentially a beauty contest that, given the situation with the public health emergency that exists now, seems to be unnecessary and indeed frivolous," Kellner said.

Eleven candidates had initially filed with the Board of Elections for the Democratic presidential primary. The Republican Party had already decided not to hold a contest, with President Donald Trump as the only candidate in New York.