NEW YORK — Dr. Ben Carson will still be on Republican ballots in Tuesday’s New York primary, potentially pulling votes away from the candidate he’s endorsed in a state Donald Trump calls “vital.”
Carson was late on submitting a letter requesting to be removed from the state’s ballot, New York State Board of Election’s Thomas Connolly said. On Monday, the last day that a a request to have his votes voided could be made, Carson sent in a void request at 1:54 p.m., after MSNBC asked his team about it.
Carson is the only Republican candidate who did not request his removal on time, Connolly said. Marco Rubio left the race on March 16 and submitted his request to be removed from the ballot five days later. Rubio and Gov. Jeb Bush’s letters were both received on March 22 and processed by the state. Carson was already stumping for Trump at this point, giving interviews and joining him at events, albeit at some times seemingly reluctantly.
Former Carson communications director Larry Ross said crediting his presence on the ballot to a paperwork issue “misses the point” and pointed to federal election law as a reason, before directing MSNBC to another spokesman, Shermichael V. Singleton, who would only say “no comment.”
We won’t ever know how many New Yorkers vote for Carson: After being voided, those votes won’t be reported publicly, and they won’t count against the overall percentages that decide delegate allocation in each congressional district. Those votes, however, could well have boosted another candidate in some districts.
Voters routinely vote for candidates who have long since suspended their campaigns if they’re on the ballot. Earlier this month in Wisconsin, Carson got 5,600 votes, while Marco Rubio got 10,600. In California’s Republican primary in 2012, Newt Gingrich won 55,000 votes despite having left the race six weeks earlier.
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