The Reform Party is ballot-qualified in New York, and has decided to let independent voters participate in its Mayoral primary being held on September 12, 2017. This will be the first time any party in New York has let independent voters vote in an actual primary for an election of this size. Some years ago the Independence Party also decided to let New York independent voters vote in its statewide primaries, but during those years there was no actual Independence Party statewide primary. But there were Independence Party primaries for county office outside New York city.
The Reform Party mayoral primary ballot will only have one candidate listed, Sal F. Albanese. But there will be write-in space on the ballot, because an opportunity to ballot petition was successfully completed. That means all write-ins will be tallied, whether the candidate written in is seeking the nomination or not.
Albanese is also seeking the Democratic Mayoral nomination, and is a Democrat. If he wins the Reform Party nomination but not the Democratic nomination, he will accept the Reform Party nomination and will run in November.
NONPARTISAN nominations and elections for all elective executive/judicial officers –
using AppV — vote for 1 or more – highest win —
pending head to head math.
End the DARK AGE.
I wonder if any other Democratic or Republican candidates will campaign for think. I also wonder if this is about the Reform Party looking ahead to 2018. The party very narrowly because ballot qualified in 2014. Since then they’ve endorsed hundreds, if not thousands,of local candidates. But they really haven’t established themselves as major players. The Conservative and Independence parties usually get more votes.
All races that appear on a ballot have a write-in space.
However, primary races that are uncontested are not placed on the ballot. An “Opportunity to Ballot” petition makes a primary race contested, even if there are only one or no candidates on the ballot.
Technically, candidates do not petition, but rather party members who would like to nominate a person. Since Albanese is not an enrolled Reform voter, the Reform party bosses had to authorize a petition, and Albanese had to accept what is called a “designation”, in effect a a nomination to be nominated in the primary.
Opportunity To Ballot is also a petition by party members, which in effect says that the petitioners would like the opportunity to vote for their party’s nominee. It might or might not be backed by an actual candidate. If the party bosses did not authorize a particular candidate to appear on a ballot, he could still be nominated by write-in voters.
It is somewhat easy to qualify for the Reform Party primary in New York City, since it requires signatures from 5% of active enrolled voters. Since there are only 183 in the city, a petition only requires 10 signatures. Of course you would have to hunt them down to get them to sign the petitions.
If the Reform Party had not opened their primary, it would have only been those 183 voters who would be eligible to vote in the primary.
@Clay, this Reform Party was a fake party like the Women’s Equality Party. In 2014, it was the Stop Common Core Party. The intent was to get additional lines on the ballot, under New York’s con-fusion laws.
Voter’s who enrolled in the party could not actually organize the party, but persons authorized by the 2014 candidates could. Once the party was organized, enrolled voters could run for committee offices. In the 2016 primary there were a few state committee members who were elected, and they took over the state organization which is now headed by Curtis Silwa (founder Guardian Angels, and talk show host). This was challenged in court on the basis that the 18 elected state committee members did not represent a majority of the potential 456 members.
Statewide, the party only has 1260 members, about 1/5 as many as the Libertarian Party. Though the Libertarian Party is not a qualified party, they qualified to have registration tracked because they had a gubernatorial candidate on the ballot in 2014.
since 1992 Perot and 1996 then 1997 NYS Con Con question and 2000 US Senate carpet bagger Clintons invaded NYS and provide the money laundry machine for the NYS Dem Comm via pay to play by enemy combatant access to the FBI/SS/Comey blessed espionage via home server and the Clinton foundation
also
2017 NYS Con Con question returns on 20 year orbit.
It should be an option for all qualified parties in every state to decide for themselves whether their primaries are open or closed, or, for that matter, whether they prefer to nominate by primary or convention..
I think all primaries if they are paid for with taxpayer dollars should not be allowed to discriminate, if they want to be exclusive then they should pay for it themselves or switch to caucuses and conventions.
Party primaries should be eliminated. There is no reason to let organized groups mediate access to the ballot.
One Election Day – NO robot party hack primaries.
Election day ballot access only by equal nominating petitions or filing fees.
PR and App.V.
Political parties never wanted primaries. Primaries were forced on the parties, starting in the 1900’s decade. There were lawsuits filed in state court by parties, seeking to declare the new primaries unconstitutional under state constitutions, but all those lawsuits failed. It is not fair to tell parties that they must pay for primaries, when they never wanted them in the first place. Other countries do not require parties to choose their nominees with government-administered primaries. Jim Riley will probably say that Argentina does, but even if that is correct, it is the sole exception along with the US.
Rationale for required primaries —
Nominations by PUBLIC Electors for PUBLIC offices is PUBLIC business.
Besides, if a party doesn’t want to have a primary, and prefers to nominate by convention, they are saving the taxpayers’ money.
Your wording suggest that you do not believe that primaries are obligatory in Argentina. Incidentally, the primaries for the legislature were this past Sunday. The focus appears to be on the turnout for each party, and parties require a minimum level of support to qualify for the general election ballot (I think it is 1.5%).
Our otherwise qualified candidate just got kicked off the ballot for the NYS Senate District 30 race on a technicality that has apparently never come up before in New York State (Although she was certified by the New York City Board of Elections, her opponent was successful in getting a local judge to kick her off the ballot). We’re looking for support and advice as we move forward with our appeal to the Appellate Division – and, if necessary, to the Court of Appeals.
Please contact me ASAP. Time is definitely of the essence.
You can learn about what’s already happened at:
https://patch.com/new-york/harlem/announcements/a/45315/lashawn-henry-to-appeal-court-decision-to-remove-her-from-the-september-13th-democrat-primary