Sorry, “Sex and the City” Fans, You Can Only Vote for Cynthia Nixon If You Registered as a Democrat Last Fall

New York’s restrictive voting laws could hurt Cynthia Nixon’s hopes of unseating Andrew Cuomo.

John Nacion//Newscom/ZUMA

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

On Tuesday, the actress Cynthia Nixon kicked off her primary challenge to New York Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo with a campaign stop in Brooklyn. Cuomo has frequently butted heads with the progressive movement in the nation’s second-largest blue state, and in Nixon those progressives have a high-profile champion. But Nixon’s campaign will have to overcome more than just Cuomo—she’ll be playing on a field designed to protect incumbent elected officials.

In New York, the deadline to change your party registration to be able to participate in the 2018 Democratic primary was October 13th. Last October 13th. That’s five months before voters even learned there’d be a primary to vote in, and a full 11 months before the primary itself, which is scheduled for September 13th. (First-time New York voters have it a bit easier, and can vote in the primary if they register by August 17th.)

New York’s heavily restrictive voting laws have long been an obstacle to insurgent campaigns, which often rely on bringing new blood into the party. And while many states close their primaries to voters who aren’t registered with the party, none make the deadline to declare party affiliation anywhere near as far out as New York does. So by the time a candidate like Nixon (or Bernie Sanders) ends up persuading a lot of independent voters that they really should be Democrats, it’s too late. As the deadline for voters to change their registrations approached last year, I reported on efforts by progressive activists to alert Democratic-minded voters:

Last spring, a group of state legislators introduced legislation that would have moved up the deadline to change party registration before a primary, while still keeping the primary closed to people who didn’t agree to join the party. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, a progressive who was elected four years ago with a lot of help from the pseudo-third-party Working Families Party, urged the state legislature to pass it.

But that legislation went nowhere in Albany. Incumbent legislators, most of whom are in safely Democratic or Republican districts, have little incentive to shake up the way their elections are waged—it would be like asking them to cut their own pay. Ironically restrictions on party loyalties do not apply as strictly to the candidates themselves. Although Democrats dominate New York politics, Republicans currently control the state senate, because eight Democratic state senators, mostly from New York City, broke with their party to form a separate power-sharing agreement. De-facto Republicans can run and win in city primaries, but de-facto Democrats can’t vote for them.

One thing Nixon won’t have to worry about: getting her supporters to the polls for early voting. Liberal New York doesn’t have that.

WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

payment methods

WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate