If Closed primaries are actually a benefit to Hillary Clinton in her campaign to secure the presidential nomination of the Democratic Party then her winning her home primary on April 19th should be a far gone conclusion. Not only are primaries in New York restricted to only registered voters who are affiliated members of a respective party, the determination as to whether one is actually a registered and affiliated member of a particular party is governed by rules that severely limit voter participation in primaries.
As a Closed primary state, a registered New York State voter must be affiliated with the political party the voter wants to vote for in a primary. Party affiliation can be declared when a New York State resident registers to vote. The registrant can also declare to be Unaffiliated, becoming what is commonly known as an "Independent”. In an Open primary state, such as South Carolina, Georgia, or Alabama, a registered voter votes as in primary as they would in a general election — no party affiliation is required and a voter gets one vote for each position on a ballot. Many Open primary states, such as Wisconsin, also allow same day registration. In a semi-open primary, anyone can participate in a Democratic Party primary except registered Republicans. Ohio is a semi-open primary state.
In a semi-closed primary state, such as California, Massachusetts or North Carolina, voting in a party’s primary is limited to Unaffiliated & Democratic affiliated voters. New York’s neighbor New Jersey, another semi-closed primary state, allows registered unaffiliated voters to declare party affiliation at anytime up to and including primary election day. Not only does New York not allow same day party affiliation, to vote in the 2016 New York presidential primary an already registered voter had to be affiliated with either the Republican or Democratic party by October 19, 2015.
The contrast between New York primary voting rules and regulations and other Closed primaries become most apparent when compared with other Northeastern Closed primary states, such as Pennsylvania and Connecticut. Regarding new voters, in New York they have to be registered and affiliated some three weeks prior to the primary while in Connecticut they have to be registered and affiliated 5 days prior to the primary. With regard to new voters, Pennsylvania is similar to New York in that they have to be registered and affiliated some 4 weeks prior to the primary; however this same 4 week deadline also applies to voters who want change their party affiliation — a far cry from the 6 month NY deadline for registered voters to change their party affiliation. Connecticut has a more restrictive policy than Pennsylvania with a 3 month change of party deadline, but that is still just half of New York’s 6 month deadline.
All in all, in regards to primary voting, New York may have the most restrictive rules and regulations regarding voter participation. These restrictions can have a pernicious effect when irregularities arise — such as the recent “disappearance” of 63,538 Brooklyn Democratic voters from the Board of Elections database. As these “removals” occurred after November 1, 2015, some 12 days pass the Oct 19, 2015 deadline for party affiliation, potentially tens of thousands of previously affiliated Democratic voters could be denied participation in the April 19 NY primary.
And I can’t think of any Democratic candidate that such a situation would benefit.