“the Zeldin campaign attempted to fly under the radar and submit over 11,000 fraudulent signatures in an attempt to get a third line on the ballot, while New York’s oppressive ballot access laws, which were changed in 2020 to prevent third parties from getting on the ballot, prevent voter choice,”
Andrew Kolstee , Libertarian Party of NY
Andrew Cuomo’s Changes Deprive New Yorkers of More Choices on the Ballot
The headline of the NY Times on July 28 said it best; For the First Time Since 1946, New Yorkers have just two choices for Governor. Governor Kathy Hochul, will be on the Democratic Party and Working Families Party lines, and Lee Zedlin will be on the Republican Party and Conservative Party lines.
That ‘s it folks. These four parties are the only ones left in New York, thanks to former Governor Andrew Cuomo, and his feud with the Working Families Party and their candidate for Governor in 2018, Cynthia Nixon.
A. Cuomo was so upset with the WFP and their slight to him by endorsing Nixon, that he decided to try and kill all of the minor political parties in New York State and their ballot access. What is sadly ironic is that the WFP, the target of Cuomo’s anger, survived his minor party attacks.
But the Libertarian Party, Green Party, SAM Party, and Independence Party were choked off the ballot by Cuomo, and the new untenable rules that he forced on the State Legislature to remove these minor parties from the ballot. And lets not forget the 400,000+ registered voters of these four parties, they got dumped also, and are now not registered to any party.
The real and final effects of Cuomo’s disgraceful behavior became apparent in the NY Elections of 2022. Several minor parties tried to get on the ballot statewide and run candidates for Governor.
But now these minor parties must collect 45,000 signatures across the state to get on the ballot. And the outcome was what was expected and what Andrew Cuomo wanted. The death of the minor political party in New York State.
The UniteNY Party, Libertairan Party and Independence Party all fell short in their efforts in 2022. UniteNY wanted to put Harry Wilson on their ballot for Governor. The Libertarian Party petitioned for Larry Sharpe as their Gubernatorial candidate. And the Independence Party wanted Zeldin on their line.
The Independence Party submitted 52,000 signatures for Zeldin, but after a review, 13,000 of those signatures were copies of other petitions, and for anyone who has collected election petitions in New York, you cannot submit copies of petitions. Only the originals can be submitted, and all it takes is one New York voter to challenge those petitions.
And that is what Andrew Kolstee of the Libertarian Party of NY did, and we are glad that he did it. Kolstee wrote, ” In their meeting on Monday, July 11, 2022, the Commissioners at the New York State Board of Elections declared the Independence Party petition invalid due to an insufficient number of signatures. The Independence Party statewide slate consisted entirely of the Republican Party’s slate led by Congressman Lee Zeldin for Governor. In addition to the Independence Party line, the Republican Party slate also filed petitions for the Parent Party, but it was ruled insufficient and invalid after a prima facie review by the New York State Board of Elections. (Note: since this was a Board of Elections hearing, there is no court case number. The hearing notice can be found here, and the official summary of the findings invalidating the Zeldin petition can be found here).
“Lee Zeldin’s attempt to secure the 45,000+ signatures by submitting over 52,000 raw signatures passed the prima facie review. However, a challenge mounted by a team of Libertarian Party officials and volunteers associated with the Diane Sare for Senate campaign discovered that over 900 sheets, containing over 11,000 signatures were merely photocopies of original sheets also submitted by the Zeldin campaign, in an alleged attempt to fraudulently represent that the petition contained the requisite number of signatures.
“This was the Republican Party’s attempt to reestablish the Independence Party of New York, which lost ballot access in 2020. The so-called Independence Party has drifted from its original meaning in order to take advantage of New York’s fusion voting and misleadingly garner support from unwitting independent voters,” said Andrew Kolstee, Secretary of the Libertarian Party, and objector to the Independence Party petitions. “In this case, the Republican Party attempted to use this tactic all the while continuing to pander to their Republican base, which is outnumbered 2:1 by the Democrats, instead of reaching out to voters all across the political spectrum. The Libertarian Party has successfully reached voters all across the political spectrum, something our candidate for Governor, Larry Sharpe, does very well.”
“Republicans talk a lot about election integrity,” said Kolstee, “but the Zeldin campaign attempted to fly under the radar and submit over 11,000 fraudulent signatures in an attempt to get a third line on the ballot, while New York’s oppressive ballot access laws, which were changed in 2020 to prevent third parties from getting on the ballot, prevent voter choice. One can only determine if a petition sheet is a photocopy if the physical petition sheets are examined in person. The Zeldin campaign’s attempt to defraud the electorate and pose as an independent campaign by filing thousands of photocopied signatures is a slap in the face to New York State voters and the election process.”
“The Independence Party petition was passed by officials in the Republican Party, who did not need to pass any petitions to get Zeldin on the line for the Republican Party due to the party’s status as a ballot access party, while Zeldin’s Republican primary opponents required 15,000 signatures for a spot on the primary ballot. Meanwhile, unrecognized political parties such as the established Libertarian and Green Parties required 45,000 signatures to get on the ballot. The fact that candidates such as Lee Zeldin, a sitting Congressman backed by the Republican Party establishment as well as multi-millionaire Harry Wilson, who failed to qualify for a spot on the ballot under the Unite Party, shows that the increase of the signature threshold was meant to prevent any other candidate outside of the Republican and Democrats from qualifying. This is further demonstrated by the retroactive reversal of the ballot access that Larry Sharpe qualified for when he ran for Governor in 2018.”
Kolstee showed the hyprocisy of New York’s current ballot access law by showing how difficult it is to collect 45,000 valid signatures. He also reminds us that in 2018, Larry Sharpe ran for Governor and got the requisite 50,000 votes, which should have entitled the Libertarian Party to automatic ballot access for four years. The SAM Party of NY, and its Gubernatorial candidate Stephanie Miner, also got more than 50,000 votes in 2018.
Thanks Andrew
