This Mother Jones story details how a registered Republican who worked for the party during 2013 petitioned to get two Green Party members on the Green Party primary ballot, for New York’s U.S. House District 23. Neither petition succeeded, because of various technical flaws. If either petition had succeeded, there would have been a Green on the November ballot for that office.

New York law permits petitioning for a candidate before that candidate has signed any declaration of candidacy. However, when the petition is filed, the candidate must be notified and has four days to withdraw. In this case, neither of the two Green Party members were aware of the petition before the expiration of the withdrawal period.