Although New York state is famous for allowing fusion, the state does have one limitation. Except for Governor and state legislature, if an unqualified party petitions for a particular candidate who is also the nominee of one or several qualified parties, the unqualified party doesn’t get a separate space on the ballot for its nominee. Instead the name of the unqualified party is added to the same spot on the ballot that is being used by one of the qualified parties.
The Upstate Jobs Party, which is not a qualified party, sued in August to overturn that law, but on September 3 the Onondaga County Supreme Court upheld the law, and on September 26 the Appellate Division agreed with the lower court.
In the State Supreme Court (which is the lower court), the case was Upstate Jobs Party v Czarny 7058/2019. In the Appellate Division it is 19-01633.
The lawsuit concerned the November 2019 race for County Executive of Onondaga County. There are two candidates. Candidate John Ryan McMahon, one of the plaintiffs, is the nominee of the Republican, Conservative, Libertarian, Independence, and Upstate Jobs Party. His name will be on the ballot four times. If he had won the lawsuit, his name would have been on the ballot five times. But because he lost the lawsuit, the space on the ballot for the Independence Party nomination will also carry the name of the Upstate Jobs Party.
Independence Party activists were part of the lawsuit, and they objected to having their space on the ballot combined with the Upstate Jobs space. One voter-plaintiff said she is an Independence Party supporter, but she doesn’t like the Upstate Jobs Party, so that she couldn’t in good conscience vote for McMahon because her vote would then appear to be supporting the Upstate Jobs Party as well. Here is the Supreme Court seven-page opinion. Thanks to Michael Thompson for the link.