Currently Congressional and State Senate Primaries are Aug. 23; Both lawsuits seeks to move primaries for Governor and Assembly, from June 23, also Aug. 23
“The State Board of Elections, apparently with the support of the leaders of both major political parties, put in place a deliberately exclusionary electoral regime for statewide offices designed to limit further competition in the primary and from independent candidates in the general election,” Laura Ladd Bierman, Exec. Director, NYS LWV
The NYS LWV filed two lawsuits last week, asking the court to postpone all scheduled June 28 primaryies and move them to August 23. Currently, primary elections for Governor and Assembly are set for June 28, with primary elections for State Senate and Congress set for Aug. 23.
One complaint states that the New York State Board of Elections unlawfully certified the primary ballot for Assembly because it relied on redistricting maps that the Court of Appeals stated were invalidly promulgated. Laura Ladd Bierman, Executive Director of the League, stated: “The Court of Appeals explicitly stated that the Assembly maps suffered from the same flawed process that led the Court to invalidate the congressional and State Senate maps, but for procedural reasons did not invalidate the Assembly maps. In combination with our federal lawsuit filed last week to postpone the primary for statewide offices to August 23, the League is seeking to align all of the primaries on one date, which will increase voter turnout, minimize voter confusion and save New York localities tens of millions of dollars.”
See Article 78 Petition filed with the Supreme Court of New York, Albany County, at https://lwvny.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Complaint.pdf.
The other lawsuit, filed in United States District Court for the Southern District of New York asks that the Court postpone the June 28 primary for statewide offices to August 23. The complaint states that the New York State Board of Elections unlawfully certified the primary ballot for statewide offices because it
relied on an invalidated Congressional map for qualifying petitions. The lawsuit alleges that the
Board’s actions violate New York voters’ freedom of association under the First and Fourteenth
Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.
Laura Ladd Bierman, Executive Director of the League, stated: “The State Board of
Elections, apparently with the support of the leaders of both major political parties, put in place a
deliberately exclusionary electoral regime for statewide offices designed to limit further
competition in the primary and from independent candidates in the general election. Our suit
requests the Court to order the postponement of the statewide primary from June 28 to August
23, 2022 – the same date as State Senate and Congressional primaries — and extend the deadline
for gathering signatures for both the party primaries and independent candidates seeking to
qualify for the general election.”
See Complaint filed with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York at
https://lwvny.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Complaint.pdf and related Memorandum of Law
at https://lwvny.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Memorandum-of-Law.pdf
A NY State Supreme Court judge threw out the redistricting maps for Congress and State Senate, claiming that they were gerrymandered by state democrats. A special master has created new lines for Congress and State Senate, and the primaries for both were moved to Aug. 23.
But the dates for primaries for Governor and Assembly remained on June 23. Speculation as to why all primaries weren’t moved to August focus on the current Governor Kathy Hochul, and the former Governor Andrew Cuomo.
Media reports claim that Gov. Hochul wanted the earlier June primary for Governor to prevent Cuomo from collecting signatures over the summer to run for Governor in a democratic primary in August.
But the reasons for consolidating the primaries extend beyond the political wishes of Hochul and Cuomo. First, is the confusion that two primaries will present to the voters of NY, who are already confused about their district lines and the recent decisions of the court and the special master.
The cost of running two primaries, estimated at $30 Million, is nothing short of a waste of money, if only one primary can be held.
Keeping the primaries for Assembly and Governor in June also prevent other candidates not named Cuomo from attempting to collect the required signatures to get on the ballot.
