Toward the end of a front-page Sunday Times news article about a Democratic congressional primary in New York City that has attracted 15 candidates, including Liz Holtzman, Mayor de Blasio, and Daniel Goldman, comes an extended discussion of how the timing of the election might affect the outcome:
It is also difficult to gauge how many voters will be in the district in late August, when the city gets torrid and all those who can, leave town. Matthew Rey, a prominent Democratic consultant who is unaffiliated with any of the campaigns, estimated voter turnout could be between just 70,000 and 90,000 in a district of 776,000 residents....
Given the overcrowded field and the late summer election date, the race is hard to pin down.
Last week, after dropping off his two children at school in Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn, Nicholas McDermott said he would absolutely consider voting for Mr. de Blasio.
"I think it's great to have someone with experience who's from the area," Mr. McDermott said.
He was less certain if he would be around in August to vote.
"That's a good question," he said.
This is strange. The Times is constantly telling us that in Republican-run states, rules requiring voters to actually be present to vote in person on election day are "repressive," "restrictive," and even "racially discriminatory." Yet here in a Democratic primary in a state where the legislature and the governor's office are controlled by Democrats, the fact that someone might be in the Catskills or the Hamptons or at the Jersey Shore is supposed to be an insuperable obstacle to voting? Is not a mail-in ballot, an absentee ballot, or early in-person voting available? The Times seems to just take it for granted that if you aren't in the city on the primary election day, you can't vote. Some questioning of this assumption, challenging it, or at least explaining it would seem to be in order. Otherwise it looks like a double standard, where Republicans who narrow the electorate are accused of racism, but New York Democrats who do it are given a free pass.