OFFICE OF THE PUBLIC ADVOCATE
FOR THE CITY OF NEW YORK
JUMAANE D. WILLIAMS
 
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 28, 2021
PUBLIC ADVOCATE CALLS FOR MAYORAL ACTION TO PREVENT MASS IN-PERSON BALLOT ACCESS PETITIONING
NEW YORK: Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams called on Mayor Bill de Blasio today to use his executive authority to prevent the mass gathering of ballot access petition signatures for the 2021 primary elections, citing the risk of such activity as a sustained COVID-19 super-spreader event. 

"In this moment we need responsible elected leaders who do everything possible to limit the spread of COVID-19. With that mandate, it is nonsensical, hypocritical, and dangerously irresponsible to require in-person petitioning for the dozens of races, hundreds of candidates for office in 2021," said Public Advocate Williams. "If we continue to require in-person signature gathering, it will not reliably demonstrate a candidate's support but rather the government's irresponsibility. Candidate petitions would amount to little more than real-time contact tracing."

In a letter to the Mayor, the Public Advocate proposed two areas in which the Mayor could take action, given that the bill in the state legislature to address this issue would still require hundreds of thousands of interactions. He proposed that:
  • The Campaign Finance Board and the Board of Elections should partner to use the number of in-district contributors as a metric to satisfy each party's petition requirements for upcoming municipal elections.  Threshold examples are below: 
    • City Council  - 75 or more in district contributions from registered voters  
    • Borough President  - 100 or more boroughwide contributions from registered voters  
    • Public Advocate - 500 or more citywide contributions from registered voters  
    • Mayor - 1000 or more in citywide contributions from registered voters  
  • The Mayor use Executive action to substantially reduce the petition requirement for municipal elections.
The full letter to the Mayor is below and can be downloaded here.

Dear Mayor de Blasio:

Candidates in elections during this pandemic should not require mass signatures in order to be placed onto ballots. Thousands of campaign staff going from door to door and crowding in public places will ultimately lead to mass COVID-19 transmissions. Signature requirements are an important part of our democratic process, but during this crisis we cannot willingly allow actions that will lead to the deaths of more New Yorkers. I ask that you take decisive action under the existing state of emergency to address this threat by implementing new requirements:
 
  • Campaign Finance Board and the Board of Elections should partner to use the number of in-district contributors as a metric to satisfy each party's petition requirements for upcoming municipal elections. Threshold examples are below:
    • City Council - 75 or more in-district contributions from registered voters
    • Borough President - 100 or more boroughwide contributions from registered voters
    • Public Advocate - 500 or more citywide contributions from registered voters
    • Mayor - 1000 or more in citywide contributions from registered voters
  • Use Executive action to substantially reduce the petition requirement for municipal elections
I urge you to take swift and immediate action to prevent further spread of this virus. For further discussion, please contact First Deputy Public Advocate for Policy Nick E. Smith at
[email protected] and Deputy Public Advocate of Civic & Community Empowerment Xamayla Rose at [email protected].

Thank you very much for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,
Jumaane D. Williams 
Public Advocate for the City of New York

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