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Ben Carson Beats Ted Cruz In New York Despite Having Dropped Out Of GOP Race Weeks Ago

By Val Powell
Published on: 05:13 PST, Apr 21, 2016

Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton may have won the New York primaries, but the issue that’s been creating more buzz is the fact that Ben Carson won more votes than Ted Cruz in one district despite him previously dropping out of the race.

According to reports, Ben Carson dropped out of the GOP race weeks ago after failing to win in the initial primaries in the states where voting was conducted. The one district where the retired neurosurgeon had more votes than Ted Cruz was said to be in Westchester.

The reason for Dr. Ben Carson’s name still being on the ballot for the New York primaries even after he dropped out of the race in early March is because he was late in submitting a request for his name to be removed from the ballot. According to the state Board of Elections, the late submission means that his name will still appear alongside his former co-candidates Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, and John Kasich.

The former presidential candidate also sent a request on Monday asking that the votes for him should be considered void. This means that the votes for him will not count in the overall percentages that determine the allocation in each congressional district.

The request to void votes under his name could have benefitted the big win of Donald Trump. Accordingly, because the votes for Ben Carson were not counted, the real estate mogul was able to secure more than 50 percent of the votes in the congressional districts. As per the latest polls, the New York businessman won 60.5 percent of the New York primaries, amounting to 89 delegates.

Had the votes for Ben Carson been counted, this would have cost Donald Trump a lot of delegates, which would have made him not able to reach 50 percent. The retired doctor started endorsing the GOP front-runner after he dropped out of the race.

Three delegates are allocated to the winner in each of New York’s 27 congressional districts provided that he has more than 50 percent of the votes. If not one of the three Republican candidates earns 50 percent, the person in second place gets one delegate provided he has at least 20 percent of the votes.

Aside from New York, the name of the retired doctor also appears on several other ballots in Delaware, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania.

After the big wins of Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton in the New York primaries, the two front-runners are close to cementing their nomination in their respective parties. The New York win of Trump has allowed him to have a total of 845 delegates, making him 392 delegates short of reaching the 1,237 delegates needed to be the GOP nominee. If and when he reaches the required number of delegates, he is sure to avoid the contested convention this July.

As for the former Secretary of State, she’s leading with 1,893 delegates, 1,424 of which are pledged delegates while 469 are superdelegates. The Vermont senator now has 1,180 delegates in total. A Democratic candidate needs 2,383 delegates to secure the nomination, and there are still 1,692 delegates available. It was speculated that the former First Lady would have a difficult time securing the votes in the New York primaries after Bernie Sanders won six consecutive states in the past primaries. However, Clinton managed to secure the win on Wednesday.

Billionaire businessman Donald Trump was the favorite of Republican voters who wanted the next president to be someone from “outside the establishment.”

[Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images]

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