New York’s law on the order of political parties on the ballot is somewhat more famous than similar laws in other states. Many political junkies know that parties in New York appear on the ballots in party columns, or party rows, in order of how many votes they received in the last gubernatorial election.
Preliminary election returns seem to suggest that the Independence Party has moved from the third line, to the fifth line. See this story. This is because its gubernatorial vote total was apparently lower than it has ever been. The Conservative Party seems to have moved from the fourth line to the third line, and the Working Families Party from the fifth line to the fourth line.
All three of these parties nominated a major party nominee for Governor this year. The Conservative Party cross-endorsed the Republican nominee, Carl Paladino. The Working Families and Independence Parties cross-endorsed the Democratic nominee.
No New York media ever seems to explore the idea that the entire system of determining the order of party columns in New York might be unconstitutional. Courts in California, Illinois, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, and Oklahoma, in the past have struck down laws on the order of party columns on the ballot, or the order of candidates on the ballot, although not all of these decisions struck down laws that are identical to New York’s law. Thanks to Bill Van Allen for the link.
also, the Greens topped 50,000 and the Libertarians fell just short of it.
I do not agree that the Libertarians fell short. In 1998, on the day that was 6 days after the election, the Working Families Party was told it only had polled 48,000 for Governor. Everyone assumed they had just barely failed. But in mid-December, when the official canvass was complete, surprise, they had 51,000. There are always lots of provisional ballots and it takes weeks to sort through them and decide which are valid. That hasn’t been done yet in New York. There are also some uncounted absentee votes and even a few uncounted precinct votes.
it is very hard to believe that WFP will end up passing IPNY but maybe Matt Damon was an effective messenger and I suppose some IPNYer sent a message to the IPNY executive committee that organized labor backed Cuomo was not a correct face for a Perot inspired party. If so somebody goofed badly.
Outstanding absentee and military votes?
@natural born, It wasn’t any great increase in the WFP vote totals, it was the collapse of the Indy Party vote that changed this equation. This party no longer has any real identity and is split between city and upstate as well. What drives me craziest is the refusal of the New York City and New York State Boards of Elecitons to publish unofficial vote totals until weeks after the election. 57 counties in New York outside NYC all publish their unofficial results on their websites, but the city and state boards are so bound up with partisan politics (every full-time board worker in the state is by statute an R or a D)that they won’t post these results. I’m going to the New York State government website right now to find the chairs of the Election Law committees in the legislature, and call them to whine about this.
Richard is right. The latest word I can get from my television and newspapers is that there are still 416 precincts that haven’t been reported on in the news. They have most definitely given the totals to the BOE but the news sources haven’t reported it because they already declared a winner and don’t think anybody cares about the third party totals or the third parties making ballot status. Re-canvassing will also change things. Wayne County just adjusted their totals yesterday because they forgot to count some precincts when they reported their original totals. (This added about 5,000 votes to the Republican House candidate and put her from behind the Democratic incumbent to slightly ahead of him.) Add in the military and absentee ballots and the Libetarians still have a shot.
According to the BOE vote totals in the last two gubernatorial elections, this election has so far seen about a half million votes less than the last two (probably the majority of the missing votes being the 416 precincts mentioned above). So if voting patterns remain the same, and there are still about a half million uncounted/unreported votes,and with NY voters discontent as evidenced by the high vote count for all five true third party candidates, the 5,500 count the Libertarians need to make ballot status can still be met.
Yipee! The party I am enrolled in, the Conservative Party has regained Line C!!
What about the Liberatarian and Taxpayers parties?
P.R. and App.V. — the current system is totally ANTI-*democratic*.
Just spoke with a New Paltz friend today about the NYS-Gov election and he and another friend all independently voted for Paladino(sp) on the Conservative Party line (all of us are either current IPNY or former IPNY state/county party officers) and each wanted to make our “independent” statement regarding the state of the State of NY. What is Mackay doing??? Harding and the former patronage ballot access NY Liberal Party ran amuck with a Cuomo NYS-Gov endorsement as well — in that case losing ballot status without getting the required 50K.
If Obama is proven (by say US Senator DeMint or Rand Paul & Co.) to not have been born in HI, just watch as the tsunami wave headed both west and will wash around the world back on this week’s CA and NYS governor electees / (both resident AGs and electoral college electors during the 2008 Obama US Presidential Election eligibility vetting process)
Uncoveredpolitics says the TaxPayers failed to make it
🙁
What hurt the Independence Party of New York very badly, I think, was its endorsement of John McCain, rather than Ralph Nader, in 2008. That was certainly not a very independent move (nor was it an intelligent move either, in my humble opinion).
What hurts the IPNY is the false naming of the party to seeking association with non-enrolled voters but not allowing them to sign party petitions or effectively vote in primaries.
p.s. After Obama is shown to not be nbc and forced to disappear and McCain is shown to be nbc both national and NYS /CA DEMs and GOPs officers will be banished and the surviving non-affiliated voters will restore the US constitutional republic (and HI reverts to territory status)
A review as of last night came up with these numbers:
Conservative – 145,724
IP – 117,053
WFP – 108,886
GREEN – 57,703
These include NYC and 21 counties out of 57 that brokedown the numbers by parties.
What hurt the IPNY was a rejection upstate to the State Chairman’s actions the last couple of years and downstate to a mixed message and voters selecting the WFP and not IP for Cuomo.
In 2006 the numbers were:
IP – 190,661
Conservative – 168,654
WFP – 158,184
Well, I have to admit that I have a lot to learn about politics in the Empire State. Here is a question for those of you who are experts on the subject: Would it not be wise for the Independence Party to break away from cross-endorsing Democrats and Republicans (except for in rare cases) and become more of a real independent party in actual practice – to better compliment its own name?
To Phil: Yes, that was its original plan in the original rules and platform, but the party is now completely controlled by Frank MacKay and Tom Connolly, who favor making deals.
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Thank you, “NYer,” for your response.