On October 15, U.S. District Court Judge Red Rakoff refused to issue an injunction in Conservative Party & Working Families Party v New York State Board of Elections, 10 Civ. 6923, eastern district. This is the case in which those two parties complained that when a voter votes for the same candidate twice, once on each party line, election officials will arbitrarily credit that as a vote for the party listed first on the ballot.
The basis for the denial is that the plaintiffs filed the case too late. The order says “Plaintiffs (the political parties) have set forth substantial arguments in favor of their underlying complaint” but they “have slept on their rights and cannot at this late date seek the kind of onerous and potentially confusing relief envisioned..plaintiffs waited until six weeks before the election to file their complaint…the Court will not invoke the extraordinary remedy of a preliminary injunction at this time.” The judge also refused at this time to order elections officials to post signs in each polling place, warning voters not to double vote. He said the plaintiffs have not yet even furnished a sample of what the signs should say.
Use the above link to read the judge’s 5-page order.
Remember, New York is a FUSION state, where all the votes for a candidate on all the party lines are added to the candidates total.
The interesting part of this issue is the wording of the complaint and the judges order. The complaint says: New York Election law 9-112(4) provides that the vote is counted towards the first party on the ballot line. But that is not how the optical scanner is programmed. The vote will go to the first filled in oval on the line. So if two minor party ovals are filled in, the first parties oval will be counted.
Ex. - Andrew Coumo is on the Democratic, Independence Party (IP), and the Working Family Party (WFP) lines for Governor. If the oval for the IP and WFP were filled in, IP would get the vote.
Why is this important? In New York, the Governor race determines if a party gets ballot status for the next four years by getting at least 50,000 votes. And the vote totals determine the parties position on the ballot.
NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote!
Michael H. Drucker
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