On February 12, the New York Senate passed AB 2570, which cuts the number of signatures down to only one-fourth of the normal requirement, for 2019 primary candidates. The bill had already passed the Assembly. The rationale for the law is that it is too difficult to collect signatures in winter weather. In the last seventy years, the normal petitioning period for New York primary candidates has been in the spring. But this year, and in future years, because the primary is in June (instead of September), primary candidates are having a difficult time collecting signatures. The bill does not apply to office inside New York city because the bill’s author didn’t think that the problem exists in New York city.