Hassell-Thompson’s cold weather vote
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- March
- 21
It was weather, not politics that prompted Mount Vernon Democrat Ruth Hassell-Thompson to cast the only “no” vote in the state Senate on whether to move New York’s presidential primary to Feb. 5.
“Getting people out to the polls in the cold weather can be very difficult,” Hassell-Thompson told me in a telephone interview. “I understand the reasons for (moving the primary) but getting people out to the polls in some districts can be very difficult.”
Lawmakers in both the Assembly and the Senate voted overwhelmingly to move the primary up almost a month from March 4. The vote in the Senate was 59-1. In the Assembly it was 123-4.
“I’m sorry it’s not sexy and there was nothing political about it, but it was just that simple,” Hassell-Thompson said of her weather reasoning.
















