Petitioning begins in super weird NYC election year

Everyone who follows New York City politics closely knows there are actually five seasons: spring, summer, fall, winter and petitioning. That last one requires paperwork. A lot of it.

All the talk of ranked choice strategy, fundraising hauls, campaign kick-offs and securing endorsements aside, we won’t actually know who is running for mayor, all 51 City Council seats, comptroller, public advocate and more until late spring when the city Board of Elections certifies the June primary ballot. Good news though – those answers are on their way. Petitioning season for major party ballot lines is officially upon us, kicking off Tuesday and going until April 3. 

To secure a spot on the June primary ballot, potential candidates need to get hundreds or even thousands of registered voters to sign designating petitions – forms that nominate that particular candidate for a political party’s ballot line. It’s a tedious process that applies to incumbents, political comeback seekers, and first-time candidates alike. New Yorkers will no doubt see this process happening in real time over the next couple of weeks as candidates and their teams fan out across the city to collect signatures. Signing on isn’t a vote or an endorsement. Think of it as an acknowledgement that the signer believes the candidate deserves to have their name on the ballot. Just know that if you sign petitions for multiple candidates running in the same race, only the first one signed will count. 

The petitioning process helps sift through the sweeping field of candidates who’ve opened a campaign account, narrowing the field to those who are the most viable. Importantly, it also pushes people who’ve so far held off on entering the field – the most obvious being former Gov. Andrew Cuomo – to declare themselves and enter the fray. While Cuomo doesn’t technically have to announce he’s running for mayor just because petitioning began, waiting too long to start collecting signatures would make finding enough eligible signers challenging. 

“It would be especially harder because the later you go, the more likely it is that someone willing to sign a petition will have already signed someone else's," election attorney Sarah Steiner said. The city Board of Elections will certify the primary ballot in early May. 

Requirements vary race to race, but it's not an easy bar to meet. Signers must be registered to vote in the party the candidate is petitioning for and they must live in the district (or the city, in the case of city-wide offices). Mayoral candidates need a minimum of 3,750 to 7,500 unique signatures, as do comptroller and public advocate candidates, City Council candidates need a minimum of 450 to 900 signatures, and borough president candidates need a minimum of 2,000. The variation in those numbers can be attributed to the difference between state and city law. While Steiner said it’s likely the city’s number (the smaller one) would stand up in court, it’s best for candidates to go for the larger figure.

“You always want to protect yourself from challenges,” Steiner said. “The raw number of signatures you get is not going to be the number of valid signatures you have for any number of reasons.” 

A surplus of signatures gives candidates wiggle room when the city Board of Elections inevitably throws out a number of invalid signatures. It’s not uncommon for competitors to challenge other candidates’ signatures, seeking to police their actions and try to get them kicked off the ballot.

All in all, petitioning can be both a daunting and exciting process – particularly for first-time candidates. On the New York City Council front, candidates are eager to begin. Democratic candidate Elsie Encarnacion, who is running for term-limited City Council Member Diana Ayala’s seat in east Harlem and the South Bronx, plans to knock on doors and visit subway stations every day for the next few weeks. “The best part of petitions is that voters decide whether we make the ballot, not any candidates’ special interest group or friends,” she said.

In lower Manhattan, Democratic candidate Andrea Gordillo, who is running for term-limited City Council Member Carlina Rivera’s seat, and her team will be hitting school drop offs and knocking on doors Tuesday, hoping to energize voters. Fellow candidate Sarah Batchu, whose birthday falls in the same week as petitioning, will be hitting the streets with a handful of local organizations and dozens of volunteers. “It feels like the universe is telling me that getting on the ballot will be my birthday gift,” she quipped. 

Democratic candidate Kayla Santosuosso, who is running for term-limited City Council Member Justin Brannan’s seat in southern Brooklyn, plans to knock doors in her district with a friend today. That’s going to be a common theme for the next few weeks. 

“I’ve told all of my friends that if they want to see me in the next month, their only shot is to be my petitioning date,” Santosuosso said. “You want to get dinner? Fine, but you’re coming to Bay Ridge and we’re getting a few dozen signatures first.”