On June 30, the New York Libertarian Party statewide candidates filed a lawsuit in state court, contesting the State Board of Elections decision that the petition is invalid. There are actually two cases, Sharpe v New York State Board of Elections, and Hollister v New York State Board of Elections, but they raise identical points. Here is the filing in the Sharpe case, Albany County Supreme Court 04989-22.
The case will be heard on Monday, July 25, at 9:30 a.m.
Did the Libertarian make copies of their petitions?
I disagree that a prima facie examination might not include counting signatures. That can be done without checking signatures, missing information, duplicates, etc.
New York should adopt an Open Primary like in Louisiana, California, Washington, and Alaska.
Individual candidates might qualify by paying a processing fee ($20?). If too many (more than 12?) Have supporters appear in person at count courthouses. Top 12 go on the ballot, others might continue as write-ins.
The LP turned in LESS than the 45,000 required number of signatures, as in they did not even have 45,000 raw signatures.
Their only hope is to get the law thrown out or eased in court.
@Andy,
The NYSBOE rejection said the petition contained not more than 42,356 signatures. You can’t get that exact value without actually counting. Larry Sharpe in his complaint says they turned in 5100 seats and each sheet can hold up to 10 signatures. But if the Libertarian Party actually kept the copy of the petitions they can count them. They must not have counted them or they might just hoped that nobody would challenge it.
I would not hire Sharpe to represent me in court. He filed pro se.
There are two lawsuits, and the attorney for one is attorney Gary Donoyan, who won the case this year against New York’s ban on out-of-state circulators.
Sometimes challengers themselves break the rules, and when they do, the challenge can be thrown out regardless of the details about the petition.