The state of New York is characterized by two strong political parties, namely the Democrats and the Republicans. In effect, the people of New York have a high recognition of these two parties with citizens dividing their votes to contestants from either party, depending on their interests. Even though there are other small multi parties, the key is these two, through which politicians try to contest and request votes. For citizen politics, this implies that one is either a democrat or a republican, views which are strongly reflected through their voting characteristics. In effect, the citizens’ strong political inclination to only these two political parties has resulted in regional divisions depending on the locality of the citizens.
Ideally, the upscale and urban regions around the state are designated for the Republicans while only a few upstate regions and urban areas of the city are designated for the Democrats. Mostly, this has resulted in regional hostility among the citizens in the upstate areas with those of the inner-city regions. Recent election trends reveal that Hamilton County citizens are more likely to vote for a Republican while; Bronx citizens are most likely to vote a Democrat. Further, because of keen interest to a political party and loyalty, it is unlikely that voters will register with just any party. The number of people that refuse to register as voters with any party has now risen to about 20%, estimated to about one person out of every five voters. Thus, while the population of Democrats is steadily increasing, the number of citizens enrolling as Republicans has steadily decreased since the 1950s.
According to the chapter on Patterns of party competition, the state of New York boasts of the most competitive systems in the country as compared to other states. This implies that the state citizens have a range of parties to be inclined to, depending on their preferred candidate. However, most people have since become loyal to particular parties meaning that there is little impact on how many parties there are. Some areas of the state are highly loyal to the Democratic Party meaning that even though the state is competitive at the state level, the predictability of election results is likely. Owing to the likely nature at which Democrats dominate most election wins, the state has earned the title of being highly dubious and the least meaningful elections compared to all other states in the United States.
Thus, the state ranks last, with an assembly of forty-eight out of forty-nine. Ideally, the long secular trend through which Democrats always win elections over the years has shielded the competitive nature of races in the state, amidst being a highly multi-party state. Overall, owing to the high affiliation to party interests and dominance of the two principal parties in the state, the state elections, as well as general election turnout is usually poor. Further, the problem is less likely to come to an end soon owing to the little commitment of the public officials to ensure increased voter registration. Ideally, poor people from New York City are least likely to vote. Nonetheless, there has been limited commitment by Pataki and the Republican state senates to ensure registration of these people as most of them are likely to vote Democratic.
In conclusion, a keen interest in a particular party has affected the state of New York. The citizens of this state are very loyal to their political affiliations, with most of them being either democrats or republicans. However, this has affected the competitive nature of elections in the state, as election outcomes are highly predictable depending on regions. Further, there are minimal efforts to ensure better voter turnout as either party is not willing to encourage voter participation for fear of increasing the difference in voter margins.