A review of the successes and failures in New York third party ballot access battles this year

From Ballot Access News by Richard Winger:

August 2 was the New York deadline for petitions for president, for independent candidates and the nominees of unqualified parties. The Libertarian Party submitted 32,617 signatures to meet the 15,000-signature requirement. So far, no other group has filed for President. The Green Party is already ballot-qualified in New York.

However, petitions that are postally mailed are valid if they are postmarked by August 2, so there may be more filings. Rocky De La Fuente expects to file by postal mail today. This may be the first presidential election since 1956 in which no party with “socialist” or “socialism” will have been on the ballot in New York. In 1956, the Socialist Labor Party and the Socialist Workers Party both filed New York petitions, but they were both challenged and removed.

Probably the November 2016 New York ballot will list Hillary Clinton three times, and will list Donald Trump four times.

Here is a link to the New York State Board of Elections web page. It lists presidential filings, both by petition, and from ballot-qualified parties. So far the Republican Party is the only qualified party that has certified its presidential nominee to the Board. The link says Lynn Kahn, an independent presidential candidate, has filed, but it also shows that she only turned in 21 pages. Even though the page now says “valid”, the usual practice for the State Board of Elections is to later count the signatures, and if the number of signatures is below the legal requirement, the Board rejects the petition. Thanks to Mark Axinn for the link.