A ballot lie: To stop fooling voters, the Independence Party line must be renamed

Thanks to a welcome change in state election law, New York’s Working Families Party didn’t have to engage in contortions to get Democratic gubernatorial primary runner-up Jumaane Williams off their November ballot line, replacing him with Democratic nominee Kathy Hochul. While in past years, the WFP would have had to play the fiction of “running” Williams for another seat, it’s now simple and civilized. He lost the primary and then declined the line. The party then put on Hochul.

She will face Lee Zeldin, nominee of the Republican and Conservatives parties. But Zeldin has also submitted petitions to run under a third banner. If he qualifies for the ballot with at least 45,000 signatures (and at least 500 from at least 13 of the 26 congressional districts), he’s entitled to have that third line, but he must not be allowed to use the name “Independence Party.”

The name is confusing, tricking voters who believe it means unaffiliated with any party. There’s an important bill from state Sen. James Skoufis that has passed the Legislature barring the name; it must be rushed into law with Hochul’s assent. Skoufis would add “Independence” or “Independent” to the existing list of prohibited party names: “American,” “United States,” “National,” “New York State” and “Empire State.” The senator based his bill on our 2012 investigation that showed that 85% of Independence Party members surveyed thought they were members of no party.  

Zeldin has submitted 52,287 signatures. They’ve been challenged by the Libertarians, which is fair, since the GOP knocked the Libertarians off the ballot for only having 42,356 signatures. The Libertarians say that 11,198 names are no good because they are on photocopies and another 4,309 are also invalid; they also say Zeldin doesn’t have the requisite 500 from at least 13 different districts.

Should Zeldin survive the challenge, the state Board of Elections must force him to pick another name. The board made a huge mistake in 1994 after the Independence Fusion Party won ballot status and then was allowed to drop the word “Fusion.”