Donald Trump is poised to win handily in New York on Tuesday but many of his biggest fans will not be able to help.
Not only will some of his children be barred from backing their dad in the primary, but also two of his lawyers, his social media manager and two high-profile proxy Fox News surrogates.
Michael Cohen, an attorney for Trump and part-time vicious attack dog, nonchalantly said in an interview with CNN on Thursday that he was not going to be able to vote for his boss.
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“No, I’m not voting in the primary. I’m a registered Democrat,” Cohen said.
But not to fear! Trump will do well enough without his extra vote.
“Don’t worry about Mr. Trump,” Cohen continued. “He’s around 50-plus percent in New York. This is his hometown.”
While this is true, it appears that Trump is not going to be missing just three votes from his closest kin and associates, but more like half a dozen.
Alan Garten, Executive Vice President and General Counsel of the Trump Organization, is a registered Democrat according to voter registration records in New York. He and the Trump campaign did not respond to requests for comment for this article.
Daniel Scavino Jr., another New York resident who handles social media for Trump, is similarly going to run into some problems in the primary election on Tuesday. According to his voter registration records, he is currently an Independent in the state.
The New York Board of Elections makes it clear that there are a number of recognized parties in the state, for which someone can vote if they are registered therein.
“To vote in a primary election you must be enrolled in one of these listed parties: Democratic, Republican, Conservative, Working Families, Independence, Green, except the Independence party, which permits non-enrolled voters to participate in certain primary elections,” the website reads. And it’s too late to change your mind.
Even outside of his immediate circle, two of Trump’s biggest cable news boosters are out of luck in the closed primary as well.
Sean Hannity, who has interviewed the smashed yam-headed pufferfish, over three dozen times this election cycle without generating any news, is a registered Conservative in the state of New York. So is fellow sycophant Jesse Watters who once asked Trump the hard-hitting question: “How did you land Melania?” in reference to the magnate’s wife.
Earlier this week, two of his children, Eric and Ivanka, discovered to their chagrin that they were unable to vote for their father in the upcoming contest. Ivanka had previously registered as an Independent in the state which disqualifies her from voting on the Republican ticket where her father’s name will appear. This, of course, comes after she spearheaded a major effort to help get out the vote for Trump in a number of earlier primary contests.
Due to the fact that New York is a closed primary, meaning that one must be registered as a Republican in order to vote for a Republican, the Trump children were boxed out because they didn’t change party registration by the necessary October 9, 2015 deadline.
The one saving grace for the man they call Mr. Trump is that he can in fact vote for himself. Despite sharing his lucrative funds with Democratic candidates in the state in past years, Trump is in fact registered as a Republican at the moment.
But if he has a change of heart, he can always throw away his vote to a lowly, ineffective surrogate.
Ben Carson is still on the ballot in New York.
