LETTER: Twice As Much Voting

In a letter to MyRye.com, Roosevelt Avenue resident and former Rye City Council candidate Lisa Tannenbaum says we each need to vote twice as much as usual.

The 2022 election cycle in New York is confusing, to say the least. The redistricting that follows the US Census has been a hot mess, I believe both parties can be faulted for creating a nightmare. Instead of one primary Election Day we now have two. Regardless of the mess, we need to care and we need to vote.  Both Republicans and Democrats need to go to the polls TWICE this year to choose their candidates.  If Rye wants to have a voice, which for infrastructure like flooding and Milton Harbor we desperately need, our voters must participate in the process. Your vote is Rye’s voice.

• All primaries were supposed to be on June 28. Now, only the gubernatorial and assembly primaries will happen in June.
• There are BOTH Democratic and Republican primaries. The Democratic candidates are Kathy Hochul, Jumaane Williams and Tom Suozzi. The Republican candidates are Lee Zeldin, Rob Astorino, Andrew Giuliani and Harry Wilson.
• Our Assemblymember Steve Otis does not have a primary challenger, to the best of my knowledge there is not a Republican primary for Assembly.
• The Congressional and State Senate redistricting maps were thrown out by the courts. That created a delay, so the Congressional and Senate primaries are now August 23.
• In the map that was thrown out by the court Rye was moved to a Congressional District that was mostly on Long Island. Rye is now reunited with Westchester, our new district includes the Sound Shore, Yonkers, Mt. Vernon, White Plains, Scarsdale, Harrison and more
• For Congress again BOTH parties have primaries on August 23. At this time Democrats Vedat Gashi and Jamaal Bowman have qualified to run in the primary, Catherine Parker is trying to qualify. On the Republican side the candidates are Patrick Delices and William Faulkner.
• State Senator Shelley Mayer does not have a primary, to the best of my knowledge there is not a Republican primary for State Senate.

Voting in New York State could not be easier. If you won’t be here you can apply or an absentee ballot. If you would like to vote in person, but early, you can vote at any one of the early voting sites throughout the county from June 18th to June 26th. And of course, you can vote on primary day at your polling place in Rye.

Wouldn’t it be amazing if 100% of Rye Democrats and Republicans voted in the primaries? Let’s Vote Rye!

Best,

Lisa Tannenbaum

Roosevelt Ave