New York’s Republican and Democratic presidential primaries resulted in wins for Donald Trump and Joe Biden. However, in Tompkins County’s Democratic presidential primary, a significant number of ballots were left blank.
Around 14 percent, or 415, of the more than 3,000 votes were marked as “undervotes”. That means when asked to pick a presidential nominee, voters left their ballots blank, either intentionally or by accident.
Some groups, including New York’s Working Families Party, called for Democratic primary voters to leave their ballots blank on purpose. These blank ballots are meant to protest President Biden’s response to the Israel-Hamas war and to call for an immediate ceasefire.
In Tompkins County, there were twice as many “undervotes” as there were votes for the two other Democratic candidates, Marianne Williamson and Dean Phillips, combined.
Biden won the county with around 76 percent of the vote. That’s about 15 percentage points less than what he won New York state by.
This follows a significant nationwide movementfor protest votes in the primaries to push back against the Biden administration’s response to the war.
In Michigan, around 13 percent of Democratic primary voters picked the “uncommitted” option on their ballots.
There have been many antiwar protests in the city of Ithaca and at Cornell University since the war began.