A group hoping to bring open primaries to New York City is taking the city clerk and the city’s Board of Elections to court after they thwarted the group\u2019s effort to bring the issue to voters.<\/p>\n
In court papers filed Tuesday, United NY, a nonpartisan advocacy group focused on election reforms, claims it filed more than enough valid signatures. But the city clerk invalidated the group\u2019s petitions based on a review conducted by the Board of Elections.<\/p>\n
The group\u2019s executive director slammed the city, saying it is acting on behalf of partisan interests.<\/p>\n
“This is by-the-book establishment politics, and we expected it,\u201d said Anthony Thomas, Unite NY\u2019s executive director. \u201cThe Board of Elections\u2019 job is to favor political parties, not the overwhelming number of voters who support open primaries, or the 1.1 million independents shut out of the system.\u201d<\/p>\n
The court filing asks that a judge review its petitions line-by-line.<\/p>\n
Vincent Ignizio, the deputy executive director and spokesperson of the New York City Board of Elections, declined to comment citing pending litigation. The city clerk did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n
Unite NY has proposed asking voters if the city\u2019s closed primary system, which only permits people to vote if they are registered in the party holding a primary, should change so that all registered voters can participate in the June elections. Its proposal would replace a party primary with a nonpartisan preliminary election open to all voters and conducted with ranked-choice voting. The top three finishers would then move on to the general election in November, which would also use ranked-choice voting.<\/p>\n
Last month, the group filed petitions<\/a> with the city clerk following a process set out in the state\u2019s Municipal Home Rule law, which governs how cities amend their charters. That law requires the clerk to send a notice to the City Council within 30 days confirming whether or not the petitions comply with the statutory requirements based on the New York City Board of Elections review of petitions.<\/p>\n Unite NY claims it submitted 42,000 valid signatures and engaged Lawrence Mandelker, an experienced election law attorney, to vet its petitions before they were submitted.<\/p>\n In a letter to City Council Speaker Julie Menin on Tuesday, City Clerk Michael McSweeney wrote that he found the petitions lacked the necessary 30,000 valid signatures required under law. The city said the group only filed 38,000 signatures and disqualified more than 23,000, arguing that the individuals who signed were not registered and eligible to vote in the last general election.<\/p>\n The city said the petitions only contained 14,000 valid signatures.<\/p>\n \u201cThe failure to meet this threshold renders the petition invalid,\u201d McSweeney wrote.<\/p>\n Other signatures were invalidated for technical reasons, like, \u201cthe failure of signers to insert certain requisite information such as the signer’s name or address, the failure to provide a legible signature, and the failure to have such signatures correctly witnessed,\u201d the letter stated.<\/p>\n The city Board of Elections includes 10 commissioners who are picked by the Democratic and Republican Party leaders of each borough. They also routinely conduct nonpartisan special elections when there is a vacant seat between election cycles.<\/p>\n