New York Libertarians Sue Over New York Ballot Format

On March 9, Warren Redlich and Mark Axinn filed a lawsuit in state court against the New York State Board of Elections, over the ballot format in November 2010 and many previous elections. The lawsuit points out that section 7-104(3)(c), which describes the general election ballot format, says each party is to have its own column or row. However, in 2010, the Libertarian Party was squeezed into the same column or row as another political party.

The lawsuit, called Redlich v New York State Board of Canvassers, also explains that 7-104(3)(c) has not been followed in the past because the mechanical voting machines didn’t have enough space to give each party its own column or row. But, the lawsuit then explains, New York no longer uses mechanical voting machines, and therefore the ballot format used in November 2010 was illegal and the illegality had no justification. New York used paper ballots in November 2010.

The lawsuit asks that in future elections, 7-104(3)(c) be followed. Also, it asks that the court recognize that the New York Libertarian Party probably would have received 50,000 votes if the ballot had not been so confusing. To buttress that conclusion, the lawsuit also points out that the official election returns failed to record how many void votes were cast in New York city. The official election returns show 3,001 void votes for Governor outside New York city, but zero void votes within New York city. It is very likely that many voters voted both for Redlich and another gubernatorial candidate who was on the ballot in the same column, and these votes should have been recorded as void. Without an accurate record of the number of void votes, it is difficult to analyze what effect the ballot format had. The party received 48,386 votes for Governor, according to the official returns. It needed 50,000 to become a qualified party. UPDATE: the case has a hearing on April 8.


Comments

New York Libertarians Sue Over New York Ballot Format — 7 Comments

  1. How about DEMANDING that the 2010 election be redone — to comply with the U.S.A. Constitution and laws and/or the NY Const and laws ???

    How soon before the NY party hacks have rational ballot layouts —

    1. Straight party box
    2. Separate boxes for each office.

    — with a vote in a 2 box prevailing over any vote in the 1 box.

    — as in most/all of the rest of the States having paper scanner ballots.

    Sorry – NO need to re-invent the ballot layout wheel.

    Where is that Model Election Law ??? — for the party hacks to ignore at their MORON peril ???

  2. Pingback: New York Libertarians sue for ballot access, accuse state of failure to count votes | Independent Political Report

  3. Pingback: New York Libertarians sue for ballot access, accuse state of failure to count votes | Daily Libertarian

  4. When the state just changes the date on the election laws and does not change many of the wording to reflect the fact that the law now should reflect the fact that the mechanical voting machines were changed to optical scanners, what do you expect.

  5. # 4 The party hacks are PARALYZED by ANY change in election stuff — they just might lose POWER – by making ANY change in any election law stuff.

    The U.S.A. is now almost as ROTTED as the Roman Republic in about 30 B.C.

    History note – 27 B.C. Augustus Caesar de facto wipes out the Roman Republic.

  6. Since government is by definition terrorism, how can anyone claim to be a libertarian and at the same time participate in the actions which enslave him?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.