By Liz Schevtchuk Armstrong
By 80 votes, former Rep. Nan Hayworth beat incumbent Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney in the June 24 primary race for the Independence Party line on the November ballot, according to unofficial returns from the New York State Board of Elections.
Hayworth, a Republican, got 729 votes and Maloney received 649 in Tuesday’s election, which drew only a smattering of participants. State registration records show that as of April 1 the 18th Congressional District had 22,506 active Independence Party members. Only 1,389 bothered to vote in the primary. In doing so, 10 cast write-in ballots and 1 submitted a blank ballot.
Of the 331 active Independence Party voters in Philipstown, a mere 32 came to the polls, in an unofficial count by an election-day worker at the town’s single polling station, the United Methodist Church in Cold Spring. For a general election, involving many more voters, several polling stations operate in Philipstown.
The federal primary just involved the right to represent the Independence Party, one of the state’s non-major political parties, in the general election Nov. 4. Maloney ousted Hayworth in the 2012 general election, after she in turn had wrested the seat (then labeled the 19th district) from Rep. John Hall, another Democrat, in 2010.
“We won, and won big,” demonstrating that “voters want a course-correction, with common-sense values and independent leadership replacing yesterday’s politics,” Hayworth said after the election. “Onward, to another victory in November!”
Board of Elections
How many members of the Independence Party believe they were registering as independents? Many, if not most, based on my experience walking petitions for Congressman Maloney a few months ago. The Independence Party has its own eccentric platform with which misled members almost certainly would not agree with. Many of these members are young voters away at college, based on my experience gathering signatures. Please be sure you are not registered as a member of this Party, which many of us believe uses its name to misrepresent itself, if you mean to be registered as neither a Democrat nor a Republican. The votes on the Independence line give this Party a line on the ballot every year. Let’s stop this boondoggle now!