The question of how the AG vote will work at the Democratic state convention in Rye this week has been answered: There will be a single ballot and the “chips will fall where they may,” according to a county chairman with knowledge of the process.

The idea of simply letting all five Democratic AG contenders onto the ballot by having multiple votes was briefly considered, but apparently that has since been shot down.

“The only way to let everyone on is through multiple ballots,” the chairman said. “That’s a machination and a manipulation.”

“…At the end of the day the sense of a lot of people is that if we do that, then what we’re basically saying is: Why even bother having a state committee and a party at all?…The rules are the rules. You follow the rules or you manipulate them.”

This decision will benefit Nassau County DA Kathleen Rice, who is the current frontrunner of the Democrats vying to replace AG Andrew Cuomo – both in today’s Siena poll and in county chair support, as she has Nassau, Suffolk, Brooklyn, Albany, Greene, Chemung and Oswego in her corner.

A source keeping tabs on Rice’s count estimates she is coming into the convention with slightly over 40 percent of the weighted vote – perhaps as much as 42 percent. If she gets to 51 percent, she will become the party’s official designee.

NOTE: The reason I became a reporter was because I was very bad at math…Anyway, a reader reminds me that if Rice gets to 51, that only leaves room for one other person to get to 25. If she gets to just over 75, no one else can get on at the convention, but they can petition their way on after the fact.

This same source estimates Sen. Eric Schneiderman and Assemblyman Richard Brodsky are both somewhere in the low 20s when it comes to the weighted vote. It’s possible they will also get on the ballot when the AG vote is held (tentatively scheduled for Wednesday, I’m told).

There’s another school of thought that believes Rice would have also benefitted from a very crowded field of having everyone on the ballot.

She is (so far) the only woman in the field, and also the only DA, making her what some see as a good head-to-head match for Staten Island DA Dan Donovan, the likely GOP designee. She also performed strongest against him in today’s Siena poll, although most of the electorate remains undecided.

Former NYC Comptroller Liz Holtzman hasn’t said yet whether she’s going to throw her hat into the ring, but she has to make a decision soon.

Also worth noting: Anyone who gets onto the ballot at the convention has seven days to accept their ballot line. From the day of acceptance, they have seven more days to change their minds and decline.

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