Campaigns & Elections

Petitioning kicks off, with pandemic-era signature requirements gone.

Hundreds of political candidates across the state have begun collecting signatures to qualify for the ballot in June primary elections.

Lieutenant governor candidate Ana María Archila and gubernatorial candidate Jumaane Williams.

Lieutenant governor candidate Ana María Archila and gubernatorial candidate Jumaane Williams. Ana Maria for New York

Petitioning season began Tuesday, as hundreds of political candidates across the state started gathering signatures to qualify for the ballot in June primary elections. And in a moment when city and state governments are lifting policies meant to reduce the spread of COVID-19, petitioning too is seeing a return to normalcy. The usual pre-pandemic standards will apply after two straight years where signature requirements were eased and the petitioning period shortened. 

“It was pretty cold,” New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, who’s running for governor, told City & State  of the near-freezing temperatures in Brooklyn Tuesday morning. Williams gathered signatures with his Democratic running mate for lieutenant governor, Ana María Archila, outside Barclays Center. “Petitioning is a great organizing tool,” he said. “In 2018, it was the first big boost we had in the campaign (for lieutenant governor), everybody out there organizing around the petitioning process.”

Another major Democratic candidate for governor, Rep. Tom Suozzi, was planning to host a petitioning kickoff rally Tuesday night at the Sheraton New York Times Square Hotel with his running mate for LG, former New York City Council Member Diana Reyna. Midtown Manhattan normally isn’t a great place to find voters registered in New York – you’re more likely to find someone from Arizona or Azerbaijan in Times Square – but the Suozzi campaign noted that they’ll be in the same ballroom where his primary opponent Gov. Kathy Hochul was nominated at the Democratic convention less than two weeks prior. 

That’s a reminder not everyone will have to petition. Hochul and the other statewide Democratic incumbents, including U.S. Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, already qualified for the June 28 Democratic primary ballot due to their level of support at the convention. Leading Republican candidates, including Rep. Lee Zeldin, who is running for governor, won’t have to petition either, after winning a certain level of support at the state GOP convention held Tuesday on Long Island.

But for those who do have to gather signatures, those candidates for statewide office like governor, lieutenant governor and U.S. Senate have the toughest job. State law requires them to get 15,000 valid signatures from registered members of their party, and they can’t all be from the same area. At least 100 signatures each need to be collected from voters living in at least half of the state’s 26 newly redrawn Congressional districts. 

But candidates for other offices have to put in the work too. Candidates for the House of Representatives need 1,250 signatures, state Senate candidates need 1,000 and candidates for Assembly need 500. But those are bare minimum numbers. Most campaigns aim for at least three times the required number, since so many signatures end up invalidated due to issues like being registered outside of the district or signing more than one petition for candidates running for the same office. 

Signatures are assumed valid unless they’re challenged in court. There’s been a movement in recent years of candidates pledging not to knock their opponents off the ballot in order to reduce the amount of petitioning necessary during the pandemic. But that rubbed some old school politicos the wrong way. 

“Fuck them!”  Frank Seddio, a Democratic district leader and the former leader of the Brooklyn Democratic Party, told City & State. “The process exists. We follow the process,” he said of challenging candidates’ petitions. “Breathing shouldn’t be the only qualification for running for office.” 

State government leaders seem to agree with Seddio. Following organized campaigns from candidates calling for petitioning to be drastically reduced or done away with altogether, signature thresholds were lowered by 70% in both 2020 and 2021 in order to reduce person-to-person contact while COVID-19 was spreading. This year, with most of the state’s population vaccinated and measures to stop the spread of the disease getting rolled back amid relatively low case counts, there has been little to no organized effort to change the requirements. And that’s fine with Williams.

“To be cautionary, I don’t think it would be much harm in lowering it a little bit,” he said. “The last two years, there were risks taken that were unnecessary. But this year, I think we’re in a better spot, particularly as most of this stuff is going to take place outdoors.”

Candidates have a little over a month to gather signatures. They can be filed with boards of election from April 4 to April 7. Another petitioning process follows that, starting on April 19, for independent candidates who want to run in the general election on party lines that do not have automatic ballot access – such as the Libertarian and Green Parties, as well as short term, invented ballot lines such as the Rent is Too Damn High Party or the Women’s Equality Party. 

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.