To its credit, the Syracuse Post-Standard published a story on July 2 saying that 2022 will be the first gubernatorial election in 80 years in which only two candidates will be on the general election ballot. See it here. Actually the newspaper isn’t quite accurate; 1946 was the last gubernatorial election in New York with only two candidates. There were several minor party petitions in 1946 but they were all challenged. They were from the Socialist, Socialist Labor, and Socialist Workers Party.
It is possible 2022 will have more choices on the ballot, if the pending Libertarian-Green lawsuit pending in the Second Circuit succeeds.
The New York Times has not run any stories about the unusually restricted choices facing New York voters this year.
This was the intention of the unreasonably difficult new ballot access law in New York.
80 years ago was 1942. In 1942, New York had six candidates on the ballot for Governor. With support from Mayor LaGuardia, Dean Alfange came in third, with 403,626 votes, 9.8%, as the candidate of the American Labor Party.
Also on the ballot were candidates from the Communist Party, the Socialist Party, and the Socialist Labor Party. None of these three received 50,000 votes needed for permanent ballot status. The Communist Party came in 4th place with 45,000 votes, benefitting from the new alliance with Russia against the Third Reich.
Vote totals for the 1942 New York election for Governor @ https://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=91796
When were their petitions formally invalidated? I don’t recall seeing it before
None of them even had the minimum 45,000 raw signatures.
Oldest gerrymander stats in NY ???
I thought Sharpe had like 54,000 signatures?
The New York Times is partisan in favor of the two-party system, they won’t print any articles about the plight of third/minor parties and voter choice because it doesn’t benefit them to do so. Kudos to the Syracuse paper for doing their journalistic duty though.