Summary
The Appellate Division, Second Department affirmed the denial of a petition seeking to validate a designating petition for a New York State Assembly primary election. The court held that numerous signatures were invalid because the petition failed to accurately identify the signers' towns or cities, leaving fewer than the required 500 valid signatures. The court also rejected the petitioner's free-speech challenge and declined to consider the equal-protection claim because it was raised for the first time on appeal.
Topics
Practice areas
Questions Presented
- Whether the designating petition was invalid because numerous signatures failed to accurately identify the signer's town or city.
- Whether Election Law §§ 6-130 and 6-132 violate the petitioner's constitutional right to free speech.
- Whether the petitioner's Equal Protection Clause challenge was preserved for appellate review.
Holdings
- Because a designating petition must include the signer's town or city as legislatively mandated content, failure to include or accurately identify that information invalidates the affected signature and supports denial of validation of the petition.
- The petitioner's contention that Election Law §§ 6-130 and 6-132 violate the constitutional right to free speech is without merit.
- The petitioner's Equal Protection Clause challenge was improperly raised for the first time on appeal and was therefore not considered.
Key quotations
“Therefore, "the failure to accurately identify a signer's town or city, or county in the City of New York, will invalidate the signature involved"” (*1)
Factual background
Paul J. Schultz submitted a designating petition containing 1,139 signatures for the Republican Party nomination for Member of the New York State Assembly for the 14th Assembly District. James D. Conroy objected to the signatures, and the Nassau County Board of Elections sustained 1,124 objections, many based on a signer's town or city being wrong or missing. The objections left Schultz with fewer than the 500 signatures required for the petition.
Procedural history
Schultz filed a designating petition containing 1,139 signatures for the Republican primary nomination for New York State Assembly District 14. After Conroy filed objections, the Nassau County Board of Elections sustained 1,124 objections, leaving fewer than the 500 required signatures. The Supreme Court, Westchester County, denied Schultz's petition to validate the designating petition and effectively dismissed the proceeding. Schultz appealed, and the Appellate Division affirmed.