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Ex-Candidate Ben Carson's Name Still On GOP Ballot In New York

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- New Yorkers heading to the polls to cast their vote in the presidential primary will still see four names on the Republican ballot, not three.

Despite dropping out of the race, Ben Carson's name is still on the state's GOP ballot.

Board of Elections spokesman Tom Connolly said the former candidate didn't act quickly enough to request that his name be removed from the ballot.

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He did however meet the deadline to have his votes counted as void, meaning any vote cast for Carson will not count for anything.

"Any votes that are cast for him today will be considered void and will not be used in the calculation of percentages on the Republican side," Connolly told 1010 WINS.

Connolly said Carson's appearance on the ballot could have been "somewhat of a spoiler" if the votes weren't voided.

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"There's a big difference between getting a majority of the votes in a congressional district, which would be 50 percent plus one, where you would get all the delegates for that district or if because there was another candidate who was not actively running and they draw some votes and that affects the formula that might be the difference between getting all three delegates or only getting the two," Connolly said.

Trump leads the GOP race with 744 delegates, ahead of Texas Sen. Ted Cruz with 545 and Ohio Gov. John Kasich with 144. Securing the GOP nomination requires 1,237 delegates.

Carson suspended his campaign in March, saying he saw "no path forward" to the nomination. The retired neurosurgeon endorsed GOP front-runner Donald Trump a week later.

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