Judge postpones primary date ruling until early January

UPDATE: Times-Union's Jimmy Vielkind posted a note saying Judge Sharpe indicated his preference would be to keep the primary date as close to the current date as possible. This should give encouragement to Republicans, who are pushing for an August primary.

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Judge Gary Sharpe has postponed a ruling on when the state's new primary date will be next year. According to a person who was at the hearing, Judge Sharpe has given two weeks worth of extensions for supplemental filings and reviews. A ruling is now expected during the begninning of January.

But just what that ruling will be is as uncertain now as ever. According to the witness, Judge Sharp explicitly asked the Department of Justice, which is suing the state over noncompliance with the Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment (MOVE) Act, what the Federal government thought the new date should be. The DoJ lawyer wouldn't answer.

The Judge also made it clear he wasn't comfortable deciding, as a Federal judge, what the State of New York's primary date should be. But the state has been in violation for two years now, and something has to be done.

That being said, the possibility of a June primary--advocated by Democrats--may be diminishing. That doesn't mean the Judge will automatically give Republicans the August date they prefer. Those are just two scenarios, neither of which the judge pick.