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This year’s heavily covered and widely discussed presidential election season has mobilized new and millennial voters to the polls, but in large states like New York, do votes matter?
“We’re not relevant on the national stage,” said Jim Coll, who is the founder of ChangeNYS.org, a non-profit organization with the mission to promote civic education and political reform in New York. “New York will kind of fall off the map in terms of getting attention from these politicians running for president.”
Both front-runners won the New York Primary. Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee, won in the Empire State with 58 percent of the vote. Bernie Sanders, who was born in Brooklyn, received 42 percent of the vote and 106 regular delegates. Although Clinton only received 33 more delegates than Sanders she earned 290,614 more votes than the self-proclaimed Democratic socialist.
New York businessman Donald Trump won his home state with a whopping 60.4 percent of the vote, picking up 89 delegates. Trump is now 393 delegates shy of clinching the Republican nomination before July’s GOP Convention in Cleveland. There are 172 Republican delegates up for grabs on what some are referring to as “Super Tuesday III.” Pennsylvania, a winner-take-most state, carries 71 GOP delegates, the most of five states with primaries on April 26.
Ohio Governor John Kasich collected 4 delegates, earning 25 percent of the vote. Texas Senator Ted Cruz, after insulting New Yorkers 3 months ago with a comment about “New York values” in a Fox Business GOP debate, received 14.5 percent of the Big Apple vote.
“We are the ones who are going to have to live with this decision,” said a college-aged female voter who voted for the first time. “I don’t want to complain about the results afterwards when I wasn’t apart of it.”
Uniondale, NY — Tuesday’s New York presidential primary is the first Empire State primary in memory that made a difference in the election process as GOP frontrunner Donald Trump (R-NY) seeks the magic 1237 delegates to clinch the nomination.
It presents an opportunity for New Yorkers to make an impact in the presidential primaries in an election year unlike any other in which registered democratic and republican voters head to the polls to fulfill their citizen responsibilities.
“We are the ones who are going to have to live with this decision,” said a college-aged female voter. “They affect us regarding education, regarding the economy, our future jobs, things of that nature, so I think [voting] does matter.”
Certainly, this highly publicized and politically charged election cycle has mobilized new voters – millennials and first time voters; however, residents of large states like New York and California have never felt part of the political process until now.
“We should go to a system that is congressional district-based,” said Jim Coll, founder of ChangeNYS.org, a non-profit organization with the mission to promote civic education and political reform in New York.
This evening, polls close at 9 PM in New York. Frontrunners Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and Trump are the expected New York primary winners, but millennial voters on the left could change that if they come out for self-proclaimed Democratic socialist Bernie Sanders (D-VA).
“If we went to a system that competed in every congressional district, for each of those electoral votes, there are some districts, 7 of them, that would be considered swing districts in this particular election and they’d be paying attention to the issues that are most closely associated to me, my family, my neighbors and their families, instead of just protecting the political parties and their interests,” Coll said.
Ninety-five Republican delegates are at stake Tuesday while 247 pledged Democratic delegates will be allocated proportionally on the left.
“I’d like to see fairness improve in everything,” said a male voter.
New York, NY — CBS New York has hosted two panels the past couple of weeks with millennial voters from both sides of the aisle. On Monday, 1010 WINS news anchor Sonia Rincon and WCBS Newsradio 880’s Marla Diamond anchored “Make It Count: GOP Supporters Debate” in the Adorama Live Theatre at CBS Radio headquarters in Lower Manhattan.
“Make It Count” focused on millennial concerns and issues surrounding the 2016 presidential campaigns ahead of the New York Primary. Journalist Neil A. Carousso joined the panel along with Donald Trump supporter Madilynn Morris, John Kasich supporter Johannes Sorto and Sarah Audelo from “Rock the Vote.”
Julianne Thompson, founder of the Free America Project, former co-chairman of the Atlanta Tea Party & former press secretary of the Georgia Republican Party joined Neil A. Carousso’s morning show to discuss the GOP strategy in 2016 and the national security plans put forth by the Republican candidates plus Donald Trump’s latest plea to keep Muslims out of the United States.
Hofstra Pride women’s soccer senior star forward Leah Galton and freshman defender/forward Nicolette Duffin join Neil A. Carousso’s morning show to reflect on the 2015 season and have a little fun as well with a “Hilarious Headlines: England or Florida” segment and Nicolette showed off her singing voice, too!