As noted previously, on June 19, a U.S. District Court Magistrate determined that New York election law is unconstitutional because it lets two or more qualified parties jointly nominate the same candidate and gives multiple spots on the ballot for that race, yet when two unqualified parties do the same thing, the candidate can appear on the ballot only once. That case is Credico v New York State Board of Elections, eastern district, 1:10-cv-4555.
The state has asked for more time to file an appeal with the U.S. District Court Judge. When a magistrate makes a ruling, the first appeal from that ruling is to the Judge. The original deadline for the state’s appeal had been July 3, but the state has been given an extension. The objection is now due July 24.
In 1997 during my first run for public office, I gathered signatures for a ‘Green Party’ line (they weren’t ballot-qualified then) and I was also endorsed by the Independence Party and the Democrats (I was registered as an Independence Party member and there was no chance of my winning so the Democrats endorsed me too). The Board of Elections refused to grant me a separate ‘Green’ line because of this rule. To this day I still don’t know why, or how they interpreted it to deny me such a line. I gathered 550 signatures for the Green line and about 15 for the Independence line. The Democrats themselves took care of all the signatures for themselves.