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Posted by
Olog-hai
on Wed Sep 4 14:40:33 2019, in response to Vote for Your Favorite New York State License Plate, posted by Bill Newkirk on Tue Aug 20 07:11:44 2019.
Now that Nate Silver is numbered among the accusers, he is now a "conspiracy theorist", lol.
Daily Mail
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is accused of 'rigging state license plate contest in favor of design featuring bridge named after his father Mario'By Ralph R. Ortega | Published: :12 EDT, 4 September 2019 | Updated: 13:15 EDT, 4 September 2019New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has been accused of rigging a contest over the design of a new state license plate in favor of one featuring a bridge named after his father.
The contest asks residents to pick their favorite among five plates. Four of the plates feature some combination of the Statue of Liberty, gold and blue highlights, a state map and New York's motto, 'Excelsior.'
But a fifth is a simpler design featuring the Tappan Zee Bridge over the Hudson river between New York and New Jersey — which is officially named the Governor Mario M. Cuomo Bridge after the current governor's father.
Now, conspiracy theorists online have claimed that the contest is designed to split the vote of those in favor of a Statue Of Liberty design — leaving the bridge option to win.
The bridge, which opened in 2017 to replace an older span, was named after the current governor's father, who passed away from heart failure in 2015.
The Cuomo bridge is not a widely recognized New York landmark, and some have claimed its inclusion in the license plate contest is suspect.
'LOL yeah this indeed seems kind of rigged in favor of the Mario Cuomo (née Tappan Zee) Bridge license plate. A bunch of near-identical Statue of Liberty designs will split the SoL vote,' tweeted Nate Silver, editor-in-chief of FiveThirtyEight, a data-driven news site.
Dan Rivoli, a reporter on the local news channel NY1, tweeted that multiple Statue of Liberty designs 'threaten to split the vote, allowing the Mario Cuomo Bridge to grab a plurality to become the new official NY license plate.'
'Anti-bridge votes must consolidate around a single Statue of Liberty candidate' wrote Rivoli.
State officials have not yet announced the results of the contest, which officially ended just before midnight on Labor Day.
A spokesperson for Governor Andrew Cuomo did not immediately respond when DailyMail.com reached out.
Cuomo has been on the defensive about the license plates, with critics unhappy about the cost that will come with the winner of the contest. Plates that are 10 years or older must be replaced with the new one, once it is chosen.
The state legislature decided on the price, not the governor, Cuomo said on a radio program.
'They set the fee 10 years ago. You want to reduce it? I'm all in favor of it. But don't say, as you said, the governor set a $25 fee.' he said on WAMC.
As for the suspicions over the inclusion of the bridge design, Richard Azzopardi, a spokesman for the governor, told DailyMail.com, 'we'll leave the dumb conspiracies to the internet and the fringe politicians who choose to live there.'
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