Senate primary: confusion among NY voters

ALBANY N.Y. (WTEN) -- It's been an interesting August primary and somewhat confusing year for New York Politics. Capitol Correspondent Amal Tlaige spoke with lawmakers and experts on why this years primary was so much different than past years.

"I was speaking with someone at the Board of Elections and I said 'What’s the turnout like?' and they said 'Well we’ve never really had a late August primary before so I can tell you it's the highest turnout we’ve ever had in an August primary,'" said Senator Michael Gianaris of the 12th Senate District.

Due to redistricting, two separate primary days have come and gone here in New York which left some New Yorkers confused. Erika Smitka is Deputy Director for the League of Women Voters, she says on Tuesday, the League received their fair share of questions, "People just asking where do they go to vote? To make sure that they were showing up at the right place, we also had calls from a number of people who they may not have had a primary that they needed to vote in that day. We unfortunately had to tell them there actually is no primary for you to vote in."

Smitka says the turnout is similar to what she saw in the June primary. It’s possible that some incumbents are not challenged if the opposing candidate did not get enough votes or decided to drop out of the race. This seems to be the case for Senator Michael Gianaris, "Well the Republican Party did not seem fit to put anyone up as a candidate in the new district. Now look, down here in Queens, especially my part of Queens, these are very democratic districts so the contests tend to be in the primaries more than in November."

Senator Gianaris says the super majority is seeing a real urgency on the part of Democrats due to recent Supreme Court ruling in regards to abortion and gun laws.