New York State has closed presidential primaries (which isn't that unusual) and it required all party voter registrations to be submitted by October 9, a whopping 193 days before the primary elections today. And that is unusual — so unusual, in fact, that it confers on New York the dubious honor of having the most difficult party change rules of any state in the nation.
In other states with closed primaries, the cut-off date is typically closer to two months, or a third of the time in advance New York requires. In some states, like Wyoming and Maine, the deadline is as close as two weeks before the election, giving independent voters plenty of time to get their paperwork submitted if they're, say, feeling the Bern.
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