New York primary spells big wins for Clinton, Trump

Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times/TNS with permission

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump arrives at a news conference with his wife, Melania, at Trump Tower in Manhattan, New York, on Tuesday, April 19, 2016.

Joey Bloch, Editor-in-chief

On April 19, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump scored big wins in the New York presidential primary. Being that each of them call the empire state home, this comes as no surprise to the current front runners of their respective parties.

Trump did better than expected grabbing 60 percent of the vote among republican voters. According to Real Clear Politics, the New York businessman averaged around 53 percent in recent polls. He also won just about every congressional district within the state except for his own backyard of Manhattan, which went to John Kasich.

Ted Cruz had a terrible night ending up in third place state wide and was not able to win a single congressional district. This resulted in the Texas senator not picking up a single delegate for the whole night. Trump managed to pick up a majority of the state’s delegates, while Kasich was able to get the rest.

On the democratic side, Clinton prevailed by garnering 58 percent of the vote. This comes as no surprise considering the fact that she served as the state’s U.S. senator for eight years as well as being a current resident. Senator Bernie Sanders is not without his own personal ties to the state, but his Brooklyn roots could do little to earn victory. Sanders’s Brooklyn roots allowed him to remain competitive in the state obtaining 42 percent of votes in the democratic primary. Many people believe that it could have even been more if voters were not turned away due to misinformation.

According to CNN.com, “Bernie Sanders’ campaign on Tuesday called reports of voting irregularities in New York state ‘a disgrace’ as local officials rushed to condemn the city Board of Elections for stripping more than 125,000 democratic voters from the rolls.”

The Board of Elections claimed the next day that there was no wrongdoing in the voting process and that everyone who was turned away had good reason to be. Many New York voters also complained that it was a closed primary. Several voters in the state, who are currently registered independents, unknowingly missed the deadline to change their party affiliation.

According to Newyorker.com, “If independents had been allowed to vote on Tuesday, and same-day registration had also been permitted, the result would probably have been closer (in the democratic primary).”

On the republican side, the front runner may have performed even better, considering his base consists largely of independent voters. In fact, if the primary was open, two of his children would have actually been able to vote for him. Ivanka and Eric Trump were not able to switch their party registration in time for the election but will be able to vote for their father in the fall if he wins the nomination.

As of now, the current delegate count for the republican candidates is 846 for Trump, 563 for Cruz and 147 for Kasich. Clinton has 1,941 delegates while Sanders has 1,240 towards the democratic nomination. The nomination fight for both major political parties is not over just yet.