Talk:1968 New York state election

comments about vote totals in the results
"Obs.: Numbers are total votes on all tickets for Burke and Javits."

A couple of things:

I don't commonly see "Obs." abbreviation; maybe "Note" instead?

Having heard about a candidate in New York combining votes he or she got from different party entries on the ballot, it is currently my understanding that this table's line for Javits as Republican also has the votes he got as the candidate of the Liberal party (so we see a blank space for Javits as Liberal). But where are the vote totals for Burke? Given the way the table is arranged, I'd expect to see the vote for Burke (as candidate of any of the parties he is listed in here) to appear in the Republican line.


 * Burke numbers are apparently hidden behind copyright screen, anybody who has a NYT subscription, might add them here... Kraxler (talk) 18:12, 21 June 2012 (UTC)

some people wondered why no election for RFK's unexpired term
I recall hearing something about that years ago (Robert Kennedy having been assassinated in Los Angeles in June 1968), so perhaps you should include explanation about that NOT appearing on the ballot. Apparently (see New York state election 1970 article) Charles Goodell's interim appointment lasted through the end of that Senate term (which would not expire until 3 Jan. 1971); that article has this:

"On June 6, 1968, U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated. On September 10, Governor Rockefeller appointed Congressman Charles E. Goodell to serve for the remainder of Kennedy's term."

(The election for the other U.S. Senate seat, that of Jacob Javits, was regularly-scheduled in 1968 and is not involved in the writeup you are reading.)

In Charles Goodell article on Wikipedia regarding this:

"Because the vacancy had occurred so soon before a scheduled general election, a special election to fill the vacancy would not be held for over two years. Public objection to the length of Goodell's appointment led to a failed legal challenge to the Governor's power to appoint Senators in the event of a vacancy, Valenti v. Rockefeller." Notice that in early Nov. 1970, there were 2 months left in RFK's unexpired term AND that seat was up for regularly-scheduled election.

Procedures vary from state to state. In Pennsylvania in 1991, U.S. Senator H. John Heinz was killed in a plane crash (earlier in the year than RFK's assassination in 1968), and there was an interim appointment by the governor, followed (that November) by election for the rest of Heinz's term, which would expire 3 Jan. 1995. I recall hearing in the news that candidates for that Nov. election were picked by the party committees, it being noted in the news that it was too late for a primary.

In Illinois in 2010, Mark Kirk (not to be confused with Paul Kirk, who was interim appointee to U.S. Senate in Massachusetts after Ted Kennedy died) actually won TWO elections that November, with the situation being like that of RFK's unexpired term at the time of Nov. 1970 election: The short time left in the term of Barack Obama, who had left to become President, AND a full 6-year term for that same seat.


 * Election laws changed many times in NY. Exactly this year (1968) a new one was made, re-introducing primaries and a rigid convention-nomination-primary-election calendar. RFK was assassinated after nominations for the primary had been made, and only a few days before the primaries were held on June 18, so no time to follow the law, ergo appointment. However, it remains unclear why a special election was not held in 1969, like the one in 1949 (See New York state election, 1949) to fill the vacancy in the U.S. Senate caused by the resignation of Robert J. Wagner on June 28, 1949, and the winner Lehman serving for one year until January 3, 1951. Kraxler (talk) 18:20, 21 June 2012 (UTC)