Spotlight: U.S. presidential primary vote in New York overshadowed by irregularities

With the news of Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton winning their respective nominating contests in New York state on Tuesday, voting irregularities soon sprung up.

New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer late Tuesday ordered an audit of the city's Board of Elections after it confirmed more than 125,000 people's names had been removed from voter rolls.

Hundreds of voters have complained to New York's attorney general about problems at polling places during the state's presidential primary.

Attorney General Eric Schneiderman's voter hotline received 562 phone calls and 140 emails by late afternoon Tuesday, a sharp increase from the 2012 general election when 150 complaints were received.

A Schneiderman spokesman said this year's total number of election complaints is "by far" the most it has handled since Schneiderman took office in 2011.

The complaints include registration problems, a lack of privacy at the voting booth, late-opening polls and poor instructions from poll workers.

Schneiderman's office said it received many complaints from people who said they were not allowed to cast a primary ballot because they had not registered with a political party.

"The people of New York City have lost confidence that the Board of Elections can effectively administer elections and we intend to find out why the Board of Elections is so consistently disorganized, chaotic and inefficient," Stringer said in a statement.

According to opinion polls, Clinton was projected to win handily in the Democratic primary in New York, holding off an unexpectedly fierce challenge from Bernie Sanders for the Democratic party's nomination.

Early results with 55 percent of all votes counted showed Clinton led Sanders by about 20 percent.

With her win in New York, Clinton would take a majority of New York's 247 pledged delegates, further widening her delegate lead over Sanders.

Like all other Democratic primaries and caucuses, the contest in New York allots pledged delegates proportionally.

Clinton entered the contest on Tuesday with a substantial edge over Sanders in terms of pledged delegates, with 1,411 to 1,179, according to the latest New York Times delegate count.

To win the party's nomination, a Democratic candidate needs to win over 2,383 delegates, including unpledged delegates, who at the moment overwhelmingly support Clinton.

Clinton's win in New York also ended a two-week back-and-forth attack between her and Sanders, with the latter constantly questioning the former secretary of state's judgement and accusing her of not releasing the transcripts of her paid speeches to big banks.

In a bid to derail Sanders, who with a winning streak had defeated her six times in the past seven Democratic contests before Tuesday's contest, Clinton slammed Sanders for his voting records on abortion and gun control.

On the Republican side, New York billionaire developer Trump overwhelmingly won his primary.

Trump was declared the winner by major U.S. media when all polls closed at 9 p.m. local time (0100 GMT). Early results with 40 percent of all votes counted show Trump won more than 60 percent of the vote.

Trump's handy victory in his home state came well within expectation as surveys over the past few weeks all showed that the current GOP front-runner led the Republican field by a large margin.

However, with results still coming in, it remained to be seen whether Trump would garner all or at least close to all the 95 delegates up for grabs in New York.

If voting for Trump tops the 50 percent mark statewide, Trump would take all 14 at-large delegates. The remaining 81 delegates would be allocated based on the share of votes in all of New York's 27 congressional districts.

A clean sweep of all 95 New York delegates would be crucial for Trump in his bid to garner 1,237 delegates before the contested party convention in July.

Trump entered the contest on Tuesday with 755 delegates, 212 more than his major rival Texas Senator Ted Cruz.

Anti-Trump Republicans have long suggested that if Trump falls short of the 1,237 delegates, he might be stopped at the first ballot at the nominating convention in July, giving Cruz a chance to snatch the nomination from the New York billionaire developer. Endi