Analyzing latest primary results

The New York primary election took place on Tuesday represents many things to many people.

For Donald Trump, it was an opportunity to regain lost ground and further distance himself from Ted Cruz.

For Bernie Sanders, it was an attempt to close the gap between himself and Democratic front- runner Hillary Clinton.

For Cruz, it was an embarrassing fever dream.

For Clinton and Trump, it was a place of victory, but the real losers were thousands of New Yorkers when they learned how flawed the system of voting really can be.

For the Republican party, it was an attempt to avoid a brokered convention. Drew Desilver of the Pew Research Center wrote that those parties that nominate a candidate through a contested convention seldom win in the general election due to a significant ideological difference between voters.

Cruz, who made comments in early January about “New York values” while gaining support in Iowa, saw his words come back to seriously hurt his chances in the state.

“Everyone understands that the values in New York City are socially liberal or pro-abortion or pro-gay marriage–focus around money and the media,” he said.

New York responded in kind, and Cruz finished dead last.

According to USA Today, in one county, Cruz came in fourth place behind Ben Carson, who dropped
out of the race in early March.

The senator, who proposed abolishing the Department of Education and the Department of Energy among others, got less than 15 percent of the vote, and came out with zero delegates, leaving his
total at 559.

Donald Trump came away with over 60 percent of the vote and 89 delegates, bringing his total to 845.

In the Republican race, candidates must have 1,237 in order to receive the nomination. With only 743 delegates up for grabs, Cruz absolutely has to do better than Trump in the next few primaries.

Essentially if he loses more than 65 delegates within the remaining primaries, he will not be eligible for the GOP nomination. Kasich remains in last place with 147 delegates, picking up three from New York.

On the Democratic side, things are a bit more complicated. On the surface, Clinton won the state with 58 percent of the vote, though according to The New York Times, Sanders won more counties in the state with a total of 42 percent of the vote. As is the case in the Democratic primaries, Clinton received 139 elected delegates and Sanders received 106. This brings their elected delegate count to 1,428 and 1,151 respectively.

Clinton remains in the lead with unelected superdelegates as well, with 502 to Sanders’ 38. Either of these candidates must receive 2,383 delegates to have the nomination, with 1,646 left to go. It goes without saying that if Sanders wants the Democratic nomination, he has to do better in the remaining states. However, his margin of error is not quite as crucial as Cruz’s is.

The real losers were the voting public of New York, who reported numerous issues with the voting records and lists when more than 120,000 Democratic voters were removed from the rolls, according to CNN.

Mayor Bill de Blasio called for a reform of the system after receiving the reports of the purge.

“It has been reported to us from voters and voting rights monitors that the voting lists in Brooklyn contain numerous errors, including the purging of entire buildings and blocks of voters from the voting lists,” de Blasio said. “The perception that numerous voters may have been disenfranchised undermines the integrity of the entire electoral process and must be fixed.”

Scott Stringer, comptroller of New York, said that he will be auditing the Board of Elections as a result of the complaints.

The final issue was the fact that New York has closed primaries, which means that voters needed to have changed their political parties by October 2015 if they had decided to change. This was the largest obstacle for those wishing to participate in the election, especially any independent voters who have recently decided to vote Republican or Democrat. While some voters obtained affidavits and court orders that allowed them to cast a ballot, those who were not officially registered by October 2015 had their votes go uncounted.

After the dust settled, Clinton and Trump came out victorious while Sanders and Cruz remained farther from their goals. The next primaries will be on April 26 in the states of Connecticut, Delaware, Rhode Island, Maryland and Pennsylvania, with 384 delegates available for the Democratic party and 118 for the Republican party.