As a result of the decision by the U.S. Supreme Court yesterday not to hear the New York ballot access case, it is likely that in November 2024, New York will be the only state in the nation with only the Democratic and Republican nominees on the ballot. Yet the entire media in New York state, with the exception of Spectrum TV, has failed to note this.
The Libertarian Party is already on the ballot for president in 2024 in all the difficult states except New York. Although the party is still not on the ballot in 16 other states, those 16 other states are all states which require 25,000 or fewer signatures (if it weren’t for Illinois, they would all be at 10,000 or fewer). So it can be expected that the Libertarian nominee will be on in all of those other 16 states.
The New York Times knows this, or should know it. One long-time writer for the New York Times has subscribed to BAN for decades. Instead, the problem is that the New York Times doesn’t want to print news about the ballot access destruction that former Governor Andrew Cuomo imposed on the state in 2020. The New York Times never mentioned what happened to New York ballot access in 2020, never mentioned the lower court decisions upholding those new laws, and now has not mentioned the U.S. Supreme Court’s refusal to get involved.
The 2020 ballot access law changes changed the definition of a qualified party, so that the Libertarian, Green, and Independence Parties were removed from the ballot. The same bill also tripled the petition requirement from 15,000 signatures to 45,000, without expanding the six-week petitioning period. The bill also vastly increased the difficulty of meeting the distribution requirement.
You make it sound like even if the LP gets enough petitions to get on the ballot in New York that the LP would still not be allowed on the ballot.
The LP expanded maximum effort in 2022 to get on for Governor of New York, and did not succeed.
Earlier the Liberal and Right To Life Parties were removed from the ballot.
RFK Jr. and No Labels Party could make it.
The Libertarian Party MIGHT be able to make it on the ballot depending up what happens between now and the petition circulation period in New York which starts in April of next year.
I do not think that the LP put in a maximum effort to get on the ballot in New York in 2022.
They’ll only make it if they nominate RFK, which they probably will.
I think it is still possible for the LP to make it on the ballot in NY next year even without a celebrity candidate.
It’s ironic when you consider that there is little doubt which party will carry the state.
So, why are the Democrats in New York so fixated about this? Their dominance is not in doubt.
It’s all about money. The Democrats want state funding for elections, but they don’t want the state to “waste” money on third party candidates.
Is there any chance that Larry Sharpe might run for the LP Presidential nomination? He might have enough support in NY to get on the ballot there. Also, Larry has been careful not to antagonize any faction in the LP.
Larry Sharpe emphatically stated that he is NOT going to run for President in 2024.
Walter, it is not about public funding. The 2nd circuit already ruled that states can have public funding and give it only to Democrats and Republicans. That was Green Party of Connecticut v Garfield. New York is in the 2nd circuit. The public funding “argument” is 100% phony.
Michael, the Liberal Party failed to get 50,000 votes for Governor in 2002. Ironically, its nominee was Andrew Cuomo, and he only got 15,761 votes.
Also in 2002, the Right to Life Party failed to get 50,000 votes for Governor. It got 44,195 votes for Governor and so went off the ballot. The Liberal and Right to Life Parties did not go off the ballot because of any law change.
45k valid in 6 weeks right when everyone else is trying to collect, both in NY and multiple other states? Not sure of they still might require witnesses? That could easily cost a million.
I agree RFK will be L nominee and Trump will be President.
If a candidate or party pays enough money for petition signatures they can make it in New York.
No Labels Party has big money donors and RFK Jr. has a large enough following to raise a lot of money. I think both of these campaign can qualify for the ballot in New York.
It will be more of a challenge for the Libertarian Party to qualify for the ballot in New York, but it is still possible.
The Libertarian Party is not likely to be able to spend the big money that No Labels Party and RFK Jr. can spend, but the LP also has lots of people in it (relatively speaking) who are experienced in ballot access, and if the LP of NY does not run a US Senate candidate next year their may be an opportunity for the LP of NY petition to piggyback petitions with that LaRouche Party woman for US Senate, which could help both groups get more signatures than they would get otherwise.
I think that the new ballot access law in New York is unreasonable, but keep in mind that groups doing initiatives and referendums face tougher hurdles. Last summer in the city of Los Angeles, CA there was a city referendum petition to overturn a minimum wage increase at private hospitals. They only had 30 days to gather signatures and they needed about the same number of signatures as do minor party and independent candidates to get on the ballot for statewide office. The referendum in Los Angeles qualified for the ballot. How did they do it? They paid $20 per signature to petition circulators (and more when coordinator overrides were included), plus a $2 per signature qualifying bonus, plus they paid for travel money and motels for some of the petition circulators.
If a party or candidate pays a high enough amount of money they will make it.
The above should read that the city referendum process in Los Angeles needed about as many signatures as does the statewide petition requirement for minor party and independent candidates in New York. That requirement in Los Angeles is around 45,514 valid signatures in 30 days vs 45,000 valid signatures out of the state of New York in 42 days.
Yeah, the requirement in New York is unreasonably difficult, but if somebody throws enough money at it they can make it, like that group that did the aforementioned referendum petition in Los Angeles made it.
“opportunity for the LP of NY petition to piggyback petitions with that LaRouche Party woman for US Senate”
The LaRouche people are still around??
Yeah. A woman in New York ran for US Senate last time under the LaRouche Party banner and she qualified for the ballot. She turned in more than the legally required 45,000 signatures, but not much more, maybe 47,000 or so. She probably did not have enough valid signatures to meet the 45,000 requirement, but her petition did not get challenged, so it never went to a validity check. I heard that she is going to run again in 2024.
Andy, it was Diane Sare. I don’t remember how many signatures she got but it was more like 5,000.
Response to attorney Brian Ginsberg, representing the Board of Elections:
1. “For nearly a century, the support thresholds were disproportionately low compared to the ever-increasing population of eligible voters”
-But the burden of petitioning is not just affected by proportion, but by total number of signatures, because it takes time, effort, and money to collect each signature. So, tripling the requirement increases the burden significantly. There was also a time when ballots were not government-printed, but he omits this.
2. “ballot lines were taken up by candidates and organizations that lacked any plausible chance of winning their elections”
-New York is free to ditch party rows on the ballot – most states don’t have them. Also, candidates that “can’t win” can still affect the outcome of the election – this is rewarded in some other voting systems used around the world, but stigmatized in our system. New York even allows fusion, which allows organizations to work together to elect someone… i.e. the minor organization’s candidate can indeed win.
3. “The 2020 reforms helped restore proportionality and ensure that ballots will be occupied by candidates and organizations possessing meaningful levels of support from the electorate”
-The fixed requirement of 45,000 signatures is not a proportion. Proportionality was not restored. The State was better at ensuring that “meaningful” candidates were on the ballot before 2020. Now, there is a greater probability that a meaningful candidate won’t get on. Also, “occupied” implies that there is no more room on the ballot for more candidates. New York’s 2016 ballot had 9 party rows and a write-in row. There is no need to have less.
4. “That objective is entirely consistent with the First Amendment, as the Supreme Court’s ruling today reflects.”
-The proportionality objective wasn’t met, and the meaningful candidates objective has an increased chance of failure. The real objective was to make freedom of association with smaller parties less fruitful, in hopes of consolidating support with the larger parties. This is a type of extortion.
INDIVIDUAL CANDIDATES ON BALLOTS– NOT *PARTIES*
EQUAL IN 14-1 AMDT
SEPARATE IS NOT EQUAL BROWN V BD OF ED 1954
TOO MANY USELESS BALLOT ACCESS SO-CALLED LAWYERS
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HOW LONG HAS THE NY TIMES BEEN A COMMIE *NEWS* BIZ ???
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P-A-T
Relying on volunteers from across the country, Diane Sare’s campaign filed more than 66,000 signatures in her 2022 bid for the U.S. Senate.
To say it was an amazing achievement would be an understatement. Overcoming New York’s outrageously burdensome new Cuomo-inspired ballot access law — a draconian measure Sare aptly described as “sadistic” — took a Herculean effort on the part of the LaRouche organization’s volunteers.
More than 100 Sare supporters carried nominating petitions throughout the state during that grueling six-week period.
Conducted in the waning days of the Covid-19 pandemic, it was one of the greatest accomplishments in the annals of independent and minor-party politics in this country.
A longtime associate of the late Lyndon LaRouche, Diane personally obtained thousands of signatures during that difficult six-weed period.
A trained classical musician and graduate of the prestigious New England Conservatory of Music, the tireless independent U.S. Senate aspirant — gathering signatures from dawn to dusk — was forced to limit her speaking engagements and other campaign appearances to events that could potentially yield 100 or more signatures during that remarkable petition drive. Every minute mattered.
Determined to overcome the Empire State’s embarrassingly onerous and discriminatory ballot access laws once again, Diane
Sare has already mounted a second campaign for the U.S. Senate in 2024.
LaRouchies are cult slaves, so they can do it. Other parties would need $1 million or more.