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What to know about Tuesday’s presidential primary election – Metro US

What to know about Tuesday’s presidential primary election

What to know about Tuesday’s presidential primary election
Getty Images/Pacific Press

New Yorkers will head to the polls on Tuesday in what some are calling one the most important primary elections in the 2016 presidential race.

Five candidates — Democrats Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton and Republicans Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and John Kasich — are battling it out on April 19 to come out the winner for their political party in New York.

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According to national polls, as of Monday, Trump was leading the Republican Party with an average of 52.4 percent while Clinton holds onto the Democratic Party lead with an average of 53.5 percent of the votes, while Sanders has an average of 40.8 percent.

The candidate who wins the Republican Party vote in New York will have the chance to pick up some of the state’s 95 delegates. To win the Republican nomination, a candidate needs a total of 1,237 delegates in their favor.

Currently, Trump leads the other candidates with an estimated 744 delegates earned, according to Reuters, Cruz comes second with 559 and Kasich has earned an estimate 144 delegates.

For the candidate who takes home the win in New York for the Democratic Party, they have a chance to grab part of the state’s 291 democratic delegates. For the Democratic nomination, a candidate needs a total of 2,383 delegates.

Clinton leads in the party with an estimated total of 1,758 delegates earned, Reuters reported, while Sanders has an estimated 1,076.

According, Michael Krasner, a political science professor at Queens College and co-director of the Taft Institute for Government, the New York primary election is crucial for Sanders who needs the boost to continue strong in the race for the White House.

“This is really a make or break for [Sanders],” Krasner said. “If he loses New York, it becomes pretty much impossible, so this is really for all the marbles.”

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Polls open at 6 a.m. and voters will have until 9 p.m. to head to their polling sites. Due to New York’s closed primaries, only registered Democrat and Republican voters will be able to cast their vote.

According to nonprofit Open Primaries, which last week rallied for the end of closed primaries in New York State, an estimated 3.2 million voters — who are either registered as independent or belong to a third party — will not be able to vote.

To get more information on polling sites or on the primary election, voters can click here.