Wow! Albany recently became a hub for the 2016 presidential candidates vying to be nominated to represent their parties in this November’s 2016 presidential election!

Democratic hopeful Hillary Clinton (D) was at Cohoes High School on Monday April 4 while Bernie Sanders (D) spoke at the Washington Avenue Armory on Monday April 11. That same day, three Republican hopefuls–Donald Trump (R) and John Kasich (R) were in the Capital District and Ted Cruz (R)–were in Scotia on April 7!

All candidates vigorously vocalized their messages, hoping voters would respond on April 19 when New York State held its primary elections.

Well, voters did respond with 60.4% of republican voters choosing Donald Trump thus giving him 89 New York State delegate votes for the July Republican National Convention. Democrats gave 58% of their votes to Hilary Clinton resulting in 139 delegate votes for the July Democratic Convention.

Check out this terrific website that describes a primary election.

Recently, in one of the courses I share online—English 112: Composition II—we debated a question that always comes up at election time:

Should there be mandatory voting in the United States where citizens are required to vote or face some sort of penalty?

I would love to know what you think!

Click here to check out some pros and cons of the issue.

Then, leave a comment with your opinion, and we will keep the debate going!

Talk to you soon.

Anne