Five Republican members of the New York Assembly have introduced A3312. It lowers the number of signatures for a statewide independent candidate, and the statewide nominee of an unqualified party, from 45,000 signatures to 15,000 signatures. It changes the petition deadline for all independent candidates and the nominees of unqualified parties from May to August. It expands the petitioning period from six weeks to twelve weeks.
It also eases the definition of a qualified party, from a group that polled 2% for the office at the top of the ticket (president/Governor) to a group that polled 50,000 votes for the office at the top of the ticket. The vote test would need to be met every two years.
In 2020, the Libertarian Party polled 60,383 votes for president in New York.
The lead sponsor is Ken Blankenbush. The co-sponsors are Joe Angelino, Joseph DeStefano, Brian Miller, and Chris Tague.
So do teh Libertarians, Greens, Independence, and SAM get two years of eligibility back?
This is an improvement, but they need to go back to the four-year standard and specify that all conditions shall be as if the other law had never passed.