[EL] election experts & the media have overlooked a big setback for voting rights in New York

[Richard Winger]

Every commentary I have seen about the recent New York election law changes has been 100% in praise.  No media seems to have noticed that one of the reform bills, A 779, represents a serious setback to voting rights in New York.
A 779 moves the petition deadline for independent candidates, and the nominees of unqualified parties, from August to May.  This is in the bill that moves the primary for state and local office from September to June.
If one looks at the deadlines for the 50 states and DC (using the later method for someone running for president outside the two major parties, new party or independent), one finds that 4 states have a September deadline, 31 have an August deadline, 10 have a July deadline, 3 have a June deadline, and 3 have a May deadline.  Besides New York, the other two states with May deadlines are Texas and North Carolina.  The deadline in North Carolina is under lawsuit attack, and Texas is about to also be the object of a lawsuit contesting the constitutionality of the May deadline.
When New York legislators were debating whether to move the state and local primary to June, supporters of that idea pointed out that the primary for all non-presidential office in New York was in June 1956-1972.  But what they didn't say was that during that period, and for some time afterwards, the independent petition deadline was in October.
There is no election-administration related reason for New York to move its independent petition deadline to May.  The overseas military voters in other states are not being harmed by the deadlines of the 45 jurisdictions that have deadlines in July, August, and September.

Some important presidential candidates who ran outside the major parties did not announce their independent candidacies until a month after May, including Theodore Roosevelt in 1912, Robert La Follette in 1924, William Lemke in 1936, Strom Thurmond in 1948, John G. Schmitz in 1972, and Evan McMullin in 2016. Richard Winger 415-922-9779 PO Box 470296, San Francisco Ca 94147
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