From the June 2003 Ballot Access News: Subscribe Now to get all the latest news):
GREENS WIN PARTISAN ELECTION
On May 6, New Paltz, New York held a 4-way election for Mayor. Jason West, who was on the ballot with the ballot labels "Innovation" and "Green," won with 37.1% of the vote. The incumbent Mayor, Thomas Nyquist, who is a registered Democrat and who was on the ballot under the partisan label "Village," polled 29.7%. Another registered Democrat, Robert Feldman, on with "Community" as his label, polled 29.3%. A fourth candidate, with the label "Environmental" polled 3.9%. See a copy of the ballot below.
Some villages in New York state elect their officers in a normal partisan election. Others, including New Paltz, have elections in which the statewide qualified parties are not permitted to nominate candidates. For these elections, most candidates run as the nominees of parties that exist only in that particular village (all such candidates petition their way onto the ballot). Since the Green Party lost its qualified status in New York state in 2002, it was permitted to nominate candidates in the New Paltz election.
New Paltz is the home of a campus of New York State University, but students did not dominate the voting. The village has approximately 3,000 registered voters, but only 869 people voted. It is estimated that only 200 of these were students. New Paltz is on the west bank of the Hudson Valley, not far from Poughkeepsie.
The Green/Innovation slate also elected both of its nominees for Trustee, so that slate has a majority of 3-2 on the Board of Trustees. Rebecca Rotzler, like West, is a registered Green; the other winner, Julia Walsh, is an independent.
West was the Green Party nominee for Assembly (lower house of the state legislature) in November 2002, but he only polled 2.4% in that race.
