Besides the two New York bills that improve ballot access mentioned on February 4, two other bills have been introduced.
A4161 cuts the number of signatures needed for all petitions (except statewide petitions) in half. The bill covers petitions for candidates seeking a place on a primary ballot, and also petitions for independent candidates and the nominees of unqualified parties seeking to qualify for the general election. It is sponsored by Assemblymembers Barbara Clark (D-Cambria Hts.), Sandy Galef (D-Ossining), and Mike Spano (D-Yonkers).
S1366 and its companion bill, A4959, delete the requirement that independent candidate petitions can only be circulated by people who live in that district. The bill merely conforms the law to current policy, since the district residency requirement was declared unconstitutional in 2004 in Chou v New York State Board of Elections.
Where’s Eric Dondero? I thought that he said that Democrats never do anything to improve ballot access.
Wait to see if they pass before giving them credit. I have seen it here. Bills are introduced by just to quiet people.
Whether it passes or not was not my point. The fact of the matter is that some Democrats in the New York legislature have introduced a bill to ease ballot access. If Republicans in New York had done this Eric Dondero would have made a big deal about it and made a dericive comment about how Republicans are the only major party that supports making elections more fair, whether the bill ended up passing or not.
For the most part, Democrats and Republicans both suck equally when it comes to ballot access and everything else, but every once in a while a few of them from either party will do something decent.
Right now a few Democrats in New York are trying to ease ballot access, while a few Republicans in Missouri and Alaska are trying to make ballot access more difficult.