On August 30, U.S. District Court Judge Frederick Scullin refused to move the general election for U.S. House, New York 3rd district, from November to December. The Republican primary for that district is October 6. One of the two Republicans running in that primary had asked the court to move the general election for that district only, to a later date, because he said it wasn’t fair to the winner of the Republican primary to have such a short time in which to campaign for the general election. Pidot v New York State Bd. of Elections, n.d., 1:16cv-859. But federal law, since 1872, has told states to hold their congressional elections in November of even-numbered years, in all districts.

The reason the Republican primary in that district is so late is that the same judge had ordered it to be on October 6. The original congressional primary in that district, in June, was tainted because the primary ballot had omitted one of the two Republican candidates, due to a mistaken belief that he didn’t have enough valid signatures. If New York used filing fees instead of petitions for primary ballot access, this incident would not have happened. A majority of states use filing fees and do not require any petitions for primary ballot access.