Common Cause NY: There Are 6.4M Reasons to Remove Brian Benjamin from the Ballot

NEW YORK, NY (04/19/2022) (readMedia)-- Today, Common Cause/NY released a fact sheet outlining what will happen if the state legislature doesn't fix the election law and remove Brian Benjamin from the ballot. Currently, a candidate who has accepted his or her party's nomination to run for office can not subsequently decline it and be removed from the ballot unless they die, move out of state, or are nominated for another office. Last week, Common Cause/NY held a press conference to propose relevant changes that would expand the categories for which a candidate could decline the nomination, with Assemblymember Paulin carrying the bill.

"The resignation of former Lieutenant Governor Brian Benjamin surfaces a longstanding problem that Common Cause/NY has raised many times before: the overly restrictive rules for ballot declination. This is a huge problem for the 6.4 million registered voters in the Democratic primary who will confront a ballot that does not reflect the reality of the field, and may end up throwing away their vote on a candidate who is not running for office. It's simply wrong and misleading to present New Yorkers with a false choice. Centuries after Tammany Hall, it's time to finally change the law," said Susan Lerner, Executive Director of Common Cause/NY.

What will happen if the Special Circumstance Declination bill isn't passed:

• The state's 6.4 million Democratic primary voters could vote for and waste their vote on a candidate who has resigned from office.
• Voters would be entirely dependent on individual campaigns, media outlets, and personal networks to notify them of changes to the ballots. Even in an election that tends to bring out so-called higher information voters, that is no guarantee voters will receive this critical piece of information.
• Election administrators and poll workers can not help voters when they're casting their ballots as it is illegal to:
  • Make changes to the physical ballot such as crossing out a candidate's name as ballots can not be defaced.
  • Have them advise voters on any matter in relation to candidates.
• If Brian Benjamin stays on the primary ballot, wins, and presumably declines the nomination given his ongoing legal issues, the Democratic Party will convene and select the candidate for Lieutenant Governor for the general election.
  • This outcome will only disempower voters and does little to combat the state's abysmal voter turnout by showing them that their vote does not, in fact, count.
  • It would feed the narrative that New York's elections work for a select few and not the many.

New Election Law Sec. 6-159 - Special Circumstance Declination

Notwithstanding the date specified in the notice required pursuant to Sec. 144 of this article, a person designated as a candidate for nomination or for party position, or nominated for an office, may, in a certificate signed and acknowledged by him or her, and filed no later than filed no later than 3 business days before the certification of the ballot for an election, decline the designation or nomination only under the following extraordinary circumstances:

• The person has received a diagnosis of a life-threatening illness;
• The person has been indicted for a crime;
• The person has resigned the office for which they are nominated or designated to run for re-election, for whatever reason.

The provisions of this Article regarding filling a vacancy when a designation or nomination is declined shall apply following the creation of vacancy due to special circumstances as herein provided, except that the certificate of substitution shall be received by the appropriate board of elections no later than two business days after such declination is received by the board.