On January 28, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed S2733. For 2021 only, it lowers the number of signatures for primary petitions. New York city citywide petitions drop from 7,500 to 2,250. Boroughwide petitions drop from 4,000 to 1,200. Lesser local office petitions drop from 5% of the number of registered members in any particular party, to 1.5%. The bill had been introduced on January 23, and passed both houses of the legislature on January 26. Thanks to Fairvote for this news.
Governor Cuomo has been so obsessed with reducing ballot access to maximize the availability of public funds to Democratic candidates. Yet, he is missing an opportunity here. Instead of dropping the signature requirements, NY ought to accept filing fees in lieu of ballot signatures, which monies could be directly deposited in the accounts of the Democratic State Committee. (I exaggerate, but not by much. The intent of public campaign financing in NY is pathetically clear.)
So does this lower the petitions necessary for the independent nominating petitions too, to be placed on the general election ballot, or just for the primaries in the parties that are already ballot qualified? If the latter, it appears to be blatantly discriminatory against independent candidates.