New York election experts said Monday they do not expect legal challenges to stand up in court against Democrats nominating Vice President Kamala Harris to be the party's official candidate for president after more than 14 million people voted for President Joe Biden in primary elections held earlier this year.
New York’s delegates to the Democratic National Convention have endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for the Democratic nomination for president, the party announced Monday evening. New York sends 307 Democratic delegates to the convention, which is scheduled to take place in Chicago in mid-August.
Democrats have quickly unified behind Harris to be the party's presidential nominee since Biden's announcement Sunday that he will not seek re-election.
"I'm happy to campaign for her — I'll do whatever she needs to be victorious because, literally, democracy is on the ballot this November as well as women's reproductive rights," Gov. Kathy Hochul told reporters Monday.
General election ballots are not printed until official certification by state Board of Elections commissioners, which must be done by the Sept. 11 deadline, according to the BOE.
"No Democratic presidential nominee is added to the November ballot until the State Democratic Party submits its Certification of Nomination for Electors post-convention," Board of Elections spokeswoman Kathleen McGrath said in a statement. "The general election ballot then must be certified by the Board’s Commissioners by the statutory deadline."
Jerry Goldfeder, an attorney who specializes in election and campaign finance law, is state Democratic Party delegate who will vote for Harris to be the nominee next month.
He said he's confident the Chicago convention will go smoothly because every U.S. state has a law that whoever a political party nominates will get on the ballot.
"We've followed the rules, we've followed the law in the Democratic Party," said Goldfeder, senior counsel for Cozen O'Connor and director of Fordham Law School's Voting Rights & Democracy Project.
Some Republican leaders have said they would sue to block Democrats from having someone else on the ballot, citing campaign financing issues.
But Goldfeder says such legal challenges would not stand up in court because Democrats have not officially chosen a nominee, and Harris can access campaign funds because she was already on the ticket.
"Anybody who says otherwise is just making it up and just trying to bollocks up the works," he said. "Frankly, it would be a frivolous lawsuit. If Republicans want to sue with regard to made up violations of campaign finance law, let them go ahead and do it."
Dustin Czarny, who chairs the state Elections Commissioner Association's Democratic Caucus, said Biden's decision to drop out won't change anything in the election process.
"I'm pretty confident in a lot of the election attorneys on both sides of the aisle who came out over the weekend saying that the convention is the ballot access process and the convention hasn't happened yet, so changes can happen," he said. "...When those 14 million people went to the ballot box, including in April in New York, the people voting for President Biden understood that Vice President Kamala Harris was there to take his place in case he could not go forward, so there should not even be a presumption of liability here. There's no legal ramifications here — it sounds like a lot of bluster."
Hochul said she has no regrets and is proud she stood behind President Biden until the end.
"I'm proud I stood with the individual who has done more to change the history of this country than I can think of any others in the last three-and-a-half years," she said.
The governor late Sunday joined a chorus of Democrats endorsing Vice President Harris to be the next commander in chief. As Hochul and many top Democrats unite around Harris, they say they're ready to stump for the vice president and make up for lost time before election day Nov. 5.
But state Republican leaders maintain that Americans will vote to change national leadership in November because of persisting concerns about higher costs, immigration and national security — not just Biden's age and mental fitness to do the job.
"Joe Biden is losing not only because of his cognitive problems but also because his policies contrast with Donald Trump’s strength on the issues that matter to the working men and women of America: the cost of living, economic prosperity, the border and security at home and for America abroad," state Republican Party chair Ed Cox said in a statement Monday. "...Under Donald Trump’s leadership, the Republican Party nationally and locally as the party of the American worker is destined for decisive wins this year. Desperate Democrat leaders undemocratically defying the will of 14 million Democrat primary voters and changing horses at the last minute will not change the general voters’ view of their disastrous polices at all levels of government. The American people want change and they will get it.”
A spokesman with the GOP said state Republican Party leaders have not discussed or have plans to file legal challenges to Democrats nominating someone other than Biden at next month's convention.