Newsday, one of New York state’s largest daily newspapers, here editorializes that ballot access is too easy in the state, and should be made more difficult. The editorial recommends that the definition of “political party” be changed from a group that got 50,000 votes for Governor, to one that got 150,000. That change, if in effect now, would remove the Libertarian, Green, Working Families, Independence, and SAM Parties from the ballot. Only the Conservative, Democratic, and Republican Parties would be left.
The editorial says the 50,000 vote test was set in 1935, and tripling it would only keep up with growth. Actually if it were to be increased in accord with the growth in the electorate, the new requirement would be 54,850, not 150,000. In 1936 the gubernatorial vote was 5,557,339 (not counting blank votes). In 2018 it was 6,097,368 (again, not counting blank votes). That is an increase of only 9.7%.
The editorial fails to mention that New York is one of only eleven states that lacks any procedure for a group to become a qualified party in advance of any particular election.
At one time or another, between 1974 and 2017, the Libertarian Party attained qualified status in 43 states, but never New York. Only in November 2018 did the Libertarian Party attain qualified status in New York. That shows that in realistic terms, New York already has one of the nation’s most difficult thresholds for qualified party status.