N.Y. Sets Date for Postponed Mayoral Primaries

Sept. 14 -- Though campaigns have paused indefinitely, the city of New Yorkwill hold its mayoral primary on Sept. 25, discarding the votes thatwere cast before Tuesday morning's terror attacks.

The state legislature and election officials Thursday night agreed to a setof ground rules for the new round of voting.

Only people who cast absentee or military ballots would not have to voteagain. City workers will reset the thousands of voting machines and willpromise not to check the status of votes cast Tuesday.

The date, three weeks after the terrorist attacks, was set with theprovisional advice of the New York Police Department, which usually sends some 1,500 officers to polling places.

But since the departmentwas unable to give a firm answer on whether it would be able to handle theevent, state election officials acknowledge that they may have to augmentsecurity and change some of their voting day procedures.

"If there are not enough, we'll have to do some scrambling and make somesort of accommodation," said Lee Daghlian, spokesperson for the State Boardof Elections.

New York's election code gives state officials the authority to hold newelections if the scheduled contests are interrupted by catastrophe. A statejudge halted voting by noon Tuesday, after it became clear that turnout inManhattan would be severely disrupted.

Politics On-Hold

And one-by-one, the six majorcandidates suspended their campaigns.

Representatives for the six major contenders — Democrats City CouncilSpeaker Peter Vallone, Public Advocate Mark Greene, Bronx Borough PresidentFernando Ferrer and Comptroller Alan Hevesi, and Republicans Herman Badillo, a former congressman, and media entrepreneur Michael Bloomberg — said they did not know when their political activities would resume.

None of the campaigns would speculate about potential politicalconsequences of America's deadliest terror attack.

And city workers have more weighty concerns.