The current requirements that Independent Nominating Bodies (INBs) must meet before they will be recognized as an NYS Political Party do not seem to be founded on logic. This year, legislation placed in the NYS 2020-21 Executive budget increases those illogical requirements threefold. The intent seems to be to eliminate 3rd parties altogether.
The current requirements that must be met by an INB are the following:
- Run a candidate for Governor, preferably someone very popular and well-liked (the candidate can be someone who is not a member of the INB).
- Place the candidate on the ballot by collecting 15,000 45,000 petition signatures from voters (nearly all the signatures will be from individuals not affiliated with the INB).
- Have that candidate receive 50,000 130,000 or more votes (nearly all the votes coming from individuals not affiliated with the INB).
If these requirements are met, the INB is recognized as an official Political Party in New York State. This standard works like a popularity contest. No membership and no organizational structure is required.
Does that standard make sense to you?
Proposed New Standard
Political parties are created in order to gather people together who embrace the same political philosophy (Worldview) about how government should function and society should be structured. Their function is to have people work together to get placed into public office individuals who share the same Worldview. To that end, the following is proposed as the standard to determine when a political organization is ready to be recognized as an official NYS political party.
- Allow organizations to register anytime as an Independent Nominating Body (INB), with the requirement that organizations that desire to run a gubernatorial candidate must be registered as an INB with the Board of Elections at least one year prior to the first day of petitioning for the gubernatorial election.
- Require the Board of Elections to record as an enrolled member of the INB all registered voters who indicate they are a member of the INBs on their voter registration form. (The same as they do for the members of the officially recognized political parties.)
- Eliminate the current requirement that a party must run a gubernatorial candidate to become, and to remain, a political party.
- To be recognized as an official NYS Political Party the INB must
- have 10,000 or more ‘enrolled’ INB members statewide per the Board of Election records.
- the INB must have at least 100 registered voters as an enrolled member, or 0.1% of the registered voters, whichever is less, in ten (10) counties.
- the INB must have been in existence for at least one complete gubernatorial election cycle.
- For an officially recognized political party, the number of signatures required to be collected on any petition for any office is 5% of the total number of enrolled voters in the party, unless a lower maximum number is set by Election Law.
- For an INB not recognized as an official NYS political party, the total number of required signatures needed to be collected on any petition to put any candidate on the ballot shall be equal to, and no more than, that required by the largest official NYS Political Party, and INBs shall continue to be allowed to collect signatures from non-members of the INB.
For a complete list of references mentioned in this document please email Mark Glogowski