On January 24, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed AB 779, which moves the petition deadline for independent candidates, and the nominees of unqualified parties, from August to May. The bill also moves the primary for state and local office from September to June.
The new deadline is almost certainly unconstitutional, under the U.S. Supreme Court decision Anderson v Celebrezze. New York now has the nation’s third earliest deadline, when the latest method for getting on the general election ballot for president is compared. The only two earlier states are North Carolina and Texas. A lawsuit is pending against the North Carolina deadline, and a case challenging the Texas deadline is likely to be filed any day now.
This is a bad bill which is going to make it more difficult for minor party and independent candidates to qualify for the ballot. This will mean more petitioning in cold weather, and less time for minor party and independent candidates to prepare for the petition drives since they will be earlier in the year. Since NY petition require names of candidates on them, it means a lot of minor parties will have to use stand in candidates, assuming NY allows candidate substitution, and if they do not, this will cause major problems.
One more MONARCH/OLIGARCH machination to get PERMANENT CONTROL.
NO primaries.
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PR and AppV