Former presidential candidate Andrew Yang is suing his home state over the cancellation of its presidential primary.

CBS reports Yang filed a lawsuit in federal court late Tuesday against the New York State Board of Elections, a day after NYS election commissioners voted to cancel the state’s Democratic presidential primary that had been delayed until June 23 because of the coronavirus pandemic. Congressional and state-level primary elections will still be held on June 23; all New York voters will have the option of voting by mail with an absentee ballot.

Yang, a Manhattan entrepreneur who ran on a platform of universal basic income to give every American adult $1,000 per month, dropped out of the White House race in early February.

Former Vice President Joe Biden, a Syracuse University College of Law alumnus, has since become the presumptive Democratic nominee after fellow candidates, including Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Michael Bloomberg, and Tulsi Gabbard, suspended their campaigns. Yang, Sanders, Warren, Gabbard, Bloomberg and 2016 nominee Hillary Clinton have all endorsed Biden.

But despite Biden effectively winning the party’s nomination, Yang says canceling the Democratic primary and removing 10 presidential candidates from the New York ballot infringes on voters’ rights. The move guarantees Biden will receive all of the state’s 274 pledged delegates.

According to LoHud.com, the move came from a new measure in state law allowing candidates to be removed from a ballot if they publicly suspend their campaign. Yang says he didn’t ask to be removed from New York state’s ballot.

“This unprecedented and unwarranted move infringes the rights of Plaintiffs and all New York State Democratic Party voters, of which there are estimated to be more than six million, as it fundamentally denies them the right to choose our next candidate for the office of President of the United States,” he said in the lawsuit, filed with seven other New Yorkers who filed to serve as Yang delegates to the Democratic National Convention.

The Democratic primary was originally scheduled for April 28, but was postponed to June 23 due to concerns about the spread of COVID-19. Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced last week that all primary voters will receive an absentee ballot application in the mail, along with prepaid postage to send it back.

Yang’s lawsuit alleges removing presidential candidates’ names will hurt down ballot candidates and result in “disenfranchising hundreds of persons” and “suppressing voter turnout." CBS reports one of those candidates, Jonathan Herzog, is also part of the suit as he challenges incumbent Congressman Jerry Nadler in New York’s 10th District.

“Voting is kind of a big deal,” Yang wrote on Twitter Tuesday.

Jeff Weaver, a senior adviser to Sanders, also criticized the cancellation of the primary and argued that it will allow President Donald Trump to extend his time in office.

"Just last week Vice President (Joe) Biden warned the American people that President Trump could use the current crisis as an excuse to postpone the November election,” Weaver said Monday. “Well, he now has a precedent thanks to New York state.”

“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 added. “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."

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