On April 2, 2020, the New York ballot access law drastically changed. The number of signatures for a statewide independent, or the nominee of an unqualified party, was raised from 15,000 to 45,000 signatures. The vote test was changed from 50,000 for Governor, to a requirement that a party pass the vote test every two years, for the office at the top of the ticket (president in some years, governor in the other election years). The number of votes went to the greater of 130,000 or 2% of the vote cast.
The Working Families Party then sued to overturn the new requirements. Here is the party’s reply reply brief, filed July 24.
WFP lawyers able to detect EQUAL in 14-1 Amdt —
as applied to INDIVIDUAL candidates ???
Does the 1st Amendment require that the state maintain records of the political affiliation of its citizens and organize their nomination activities?
JR — obviously NOOOO such 1st Amdt *requirement*.
The govt registration party PURGE lists are due to the official govt primaries since 1888-1890.
Taxpayers paying for primaries of larger parties in most States – even if they HATE a party gang.
——–
NOOO primaries
ONE Election Day
One person nom pet forms – to be secret as with secret ballots.
PR and AppV
TOTSOP
It is there. Read penumbras.
This is just Cuomo’s latest attempt to defeat them. He tried splitting the vote by founding his own third party, and when that didn’t work he decided to raise the ballot threshold through an electoral finance commission. When the NY Supreme Court struck down his commission as improper delegation of Legislative Powers, he made the changes himself by making them part of his 2021 budget. It is all highly suspect and corrupt. Let’s hope they win the case, but they have enough support that they have a good shot at making the 130,000 vote threshold (2% has never been higher than 130000, it usually isn’t even close. It’s usually between 3.5 and 5 percent
Impeach wannabe emperor Cuomo.
@DR,
But the 1st Amendment does require that the government not interfere with individuals organizing in groups or political parties to advocate for candidates or issues, whether on a one-off basis or semipermanent. Correct?
Maintaining records of political affiliations and organizing their nomination procedures is interfering rather than facilitating.
Man, how you get your head upside down like that? I want to know. It’s not showing me a way to flip it. Where’s that button?