The Independent Senator from Vermont is attacking the state Democratic Party he ‘s running in….
As he has tried to do with the Democratic national party…
He IS trying to change the party rules to let him co-op a party he is NOT a registered member of by train g to get out a larger Independent vote….
Polling for California and Texas showing Sanders in the lead (most of those polls have over 5% MOE’s) over Biden by small amounts may not reflect who can actually vote and delegate allotments in the contests…Sanders campaign knows this despite the headlines…Hence the Sanders early complaining…
Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders charged Friday that California’s primary system threatens to disenfranchise millions of independent voters whose support he has cultivated in the nation’s most populous state.
Sanders said Friday during a press conference in Santa Ana that he and his team have been campaigning hard to reach California’s 5.3 million “no-party-preference” voters, who now represent the second largest voting bloc in the state at 25.9 percent — ahead of Republicans, who comprise 23.7 percent.
But in California, where voting has already started ahead of the March 3 election, the Vermont senator said he’s concerned that independents are not yet turning out in large numbers.
Each party establishes its own presidential primary rules. In California, Democrats allow independents to participate if those voters request a Democratic ballot, while Republicans have a closed system that requires voters to re-register with the GOP.
“Unfortunately, under the current NPP participation rules, we risk locking out millions of young people … millions of young people of color — and many, many other people who wanted to participate in the Democratic primary but may find it impossible for them to do so,” he said. “And that seems to me to be very, very wrong.”
Sanders’ concerns may be rooted in data suggesting his campaign — banking heavily on California’s 494 delegate Mother Lode — could take a hit on Super Tuesday should NPP voters fail to turn out. So far, about 1.6 million ballots have been cast in the primary, with about 326,000 ballots from voters not registered with the two major parties, compared to 612,000 votes submitted by Democrats and 619,000 from Republicans, according to Political Data Inc.
The firm’s vice president, Paul Mitchell, suggested in a recent analysis in Capitol Weekly that the failure of NPP voters to obtain Democratic ballots would most likely hurt two candidates — Sanders and Mike Bloomberg….
Monmouth (408 participants, margin of error of +/- 4.9 percent):
1. Bernie Sanders, 24 percent
2. Joe Biden, 17 percent
3. Mike Bloomberg, 13 percent
4. Elizabeth Warren, 10 percent
5. Pete Buttigieg, nine percent
All others at five percent support or less.
UMass (450 participants, margin of error of +/- 6.7 percent):
1. Bernie Sanders, 24 percent
2. Elizabeth Warren, 16 percent
3. Joe Biden, 13 percent
Note….
In 2016 the California Democratic primary was held way back in the calendar in June….
Polls had Hillary Clinton ahead Sanders by a small margin….
She won by a small margin….The difference in delegates was only 33…..
image…NYPost.Com