The New York State Supreme Court, Appellate Division, will hear the Independence Party dispute over who its nominee is on Friday, February 22. The election involved is the special election to fill the vacant State Senate seat in the 48th district. That special election is set for Tuesday, February 26.

One county unit of the Independence Party nominated one candidate, but the other county unit of that party in that district nominated another candidate. The lower court had ruled that the State Committee should have made the nomination.

Although there are many disadvantages to old-fashioned mechanical voting machines, they have one advantage; the ballot can be changed almost at the last minute. New York is the only state still using old-fashioned mechanical voting machines. Changing the ballot involves inserting various labels next to the levers. Of course, that does not solve the absentee ballot problem.