When voters go to the polls on March 2 to help pick a Democratic nominee to challenge President Bush, they will find nine candidates on the ballot, including Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, who pulled out of the race on Feb. 3, and Congressman Richard A. Gephardt, who dropped out last month.
That is because New York election law prevents removing any qualified candidate after a certain point unless they die or are declared mentally incompetent.
That may not be too confusing, since many people will know who is in and who is out. But even political insiders are confused by other details of the process, including delegate selection and the question of whether votes for a withdrawn candidate will count. And if insiders are confused, election watchdogs say, many people who enter the voting booth next month are bound to be puzzled.
"It is very confusing from the viewpoint of the voter," said Marjorie Shea, chairwoman of the election reform task force of the Women's City Club, a group started in 1915 to involve women in the political decision-making in the city.
The confusion starts with the ballot. It lists both the names of the candidates and the names of delegates committed to voting for the candidate at the Democratic National Convention.
But not every candidate managed to get delegates on the ballot to run with them in each of the state's 29 Congressional districts. In technical terms, that will not affect anything (more on this later), but in practical terms it may be very confusing for voters, said Adrienne Kivelson, co-chairwoman of the New York City League of Women Voters.
A voter, for example, may want to support Senator John Kerry. That's easy enough; just pull the lever next to Mr. Kerry's name. But in nine Congressional districts, Mr. Kerry failed to get any delegates on the ballot (He did not collect the signatures to qualify there). Ms. Kivelson and others said that it was very likely some voters would mistakenly vote for delegates committed to other candidates.
But if it does not matter, why does it matter?
"We are concerned when a ballot is this confusing, that it discourages voters," Ms. Kivelson said.
Sticking with the ballot, voters in New York City are accustomed to finding ballots organized in vertical rows, with Republicans in one row, for example, Democrats in another. But the primary ballot had so many candidates it had to be organized horizontally, which means that delegates will be listed beside, not below, the candidates they are committed to. Again, it is a problem that adds to the confusion, the watchdogs said.
According to the State Board of Elections, a lottery was used to determine the order candidates appear on the ballot statewide. Thus, perennial presidential candidate Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr., is fourth on the ballot, while Mr. Kerry is seventh. Dennis Kucinich is first, John Edwards is third, Al Sharpton is sixth. Senator Lieberman is second.
In order to win the nomination, a candidate must collect 2,162 delegates. In New York, 236 are at stake. During the primary and caucus season, candidates win delegates if they get 15 percent of the vote in each Congressional district, or if they get 15 percent of the statewide vote, or both. Those are national party rules.
But that was not clear to people like Ethan Geto, who managed the New York campaign for Howard Dean. Mr. Geto said he sent an e-mail message to supporters telling them that even if Dr. Dean does well in their area, he will not win delegates unless he also collects 15 percent statewide. Mr. Geto, a veteran New York political activist, was not alone. A spokesman for the Queens Democratic Party thought the same was true.
"They are wrong," said Philip McNamara, director of delegate selection of the Democratic National Committee in Washington.
The whole delegate selection process is even more complicated because in every other state (except New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, West Virginia, New Jersey and Rhode Island), voters select only a candidate, Mr. McNamara said. Delegates are named later. So if a candidate, like Mr. Kerry, lacks named delegates in some Congressional districts, does he get all the delegates he is entitled to? The answer is, yes. In that case, delegates will be assigned during the state party convention in May.
But do those candidates who have pulled out of the race still get delegates? That depends.
Mr. McNamara said that candidates who "suspended" their campaigns get delegates. That, he said, would include Gen. Wesley Clark and Dr. Dean. But he said that candidates who "withdrew" won't get their delegates, and that would be Mr. Gephardt and Senator Lieberman. Carol Moseley Braun is not on the ballot in New York.
What's the difference between withdrawn and suspended? It is whatever the candidate says, Mr. McNamara said.
Steven Richman, general counsel of the New York City Board of Elections, said they are aware of some of the concerns, have posted signs, trained inspectors to answer questions and included additional information on the ballot, such as identifying which candidate a delegate is committed to.
When all is said and done, what matters most is that voters pick a candidate and pull that lever to make their vote count. Unless, of course, the candidate has withdrawn.