The Working Families Party of New York city is extremely unlikely to nominate Andrew Cuomo for Mayor in this year’s election, even if he wins the Democratic primary. See this story.
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On April 15, Jim Walden, the New York city mayoral candidate who wants “Independence” as his ballot label, filed this reply brief in Walder v Kosinski, 25-764.
In 2022 the New York legislature banned the words “Independence” and “independent” from ever being part of a qualified party’s name. Election officials therefore won’t even permit an independent candidate to use either of those words in his or her ballot label. New York is one of the 25 states that lets an independent candidate choose a party label that is not too long and not obscene. But this interpretation of the 2022 law means that a New York independent candidate can’t even have the word “independent” as a ballot label, which is absurd.
This is old news, but BAN hadn’t reported it. On September 17, 2024, U.S. District Court Judge Brian M. Cogan, a Bush Jr. appointee, struck down the New York ban on out-of-state circulators. The same judge had enjoined it in 2022, in a Libertarian lawsuit, Schmidt v Kosinski, e.d., 1:22cv-2210. Here is the four-page order.
Oklahoma law lets parties choose whether to let independents vote in their primaries or not. On April 12, the Oklahoma Libertarian Party voted to allow independents in its 2026 primaries.
Oklahoma Libertarians did not allow independents to vote in their primaries of 2018, 2020, 2022, or 2024.
Here is the story, hot off of Oklahoma Watch.
Thanks to Chris Powell for keeping us in the know!