On June 10, Rick Hasen's blog included a link to an
article in the New York Sun, and that article was not
accurate about New York's fusion practices.  The New
York Sun story said that when a qualified party and an
unqualified party jointly nominate the same candidate,
that candidate does not get separate squares on the
ballot.  

In reality, if a candidate is nominated by a qualified
party and an unqualified party, he or she gets listed
twice on the ballot, and the voter can choose either
square (i.e., lever, on the mechanical voting machines
used throughout New York state).

However, if the candidate gets nominated by two
qualified parties and an unqualified party, for a
total of 3 nominations, then that candidate still only
gets two squares, and the unqualified party's
nomination won't produce a separate square.

Since Bloomberg is already being nominated by two
qualified parties (Republican and Independence), if
the Liberal Party also nominates him, the Liberals
won't get their own square.  So the New York Sun was
right to say that Bloomberg might end up with his
Republican square having "Liberal Party" in tiny
letters as well.  

But the Sun was wrong to say that in general, fusion
nominations always look like this.  They only look
like that when the nominee has 3 nominations and one
nomination is from an unqualified party.


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