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Back on ballot, de Blasio and supporters call for election reform
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PHOTO: MICHAEL A. HARRIS/EXAMINERNY.COM
On Tuesday Brooklyn City Council Member Bill de Blasio, a Democratic candidate for New York City Public Advocate was back on the ballot and fighting for election reform to prevent the situation that happened to him from happening to anyone else.
At a City Hall rally Wednesday morning, de Blasio was joined by over 100 supporters, including good government groups, labor unions and his partners in government to say that what happened to him was unjust and could have happened to any candidate and that New York's arcane election laws need to be reformed."We have 19th century election laws for a 21st century society," said de Blasio. "We must reform our election system so voters are encouraged to participate and candidates are not forced to navigate the excessive bureaucracy that too often knocks qualified competitors off the ballot. As Public Advocate, I will fight to make City government more responsive and accountable so that New Yorkers’ democratic choice is no longer jeopardized by needless red tape."
Last Thursday the New York City Board of Elections denied de Blasio a place on the ballot, due to what they said was an error; de Blasio's cover sheet indicated that 131 volumes of petitions had been submitted, in reality 132 volumes had been submitted. The Board of Elections said that their hand were tied; de Blasio's cover sheet was wrong and there was no rule that allowed them to have his name appear on the ballot. Yesterday the Board of Elections met to hear an appeal filed by the de Blasio campaign and found that it had actually been their own error that had given the campaign misinformation that denied him a place on the ballot. They voted overwhelmingly to put de Blasio on the ballot.
Still de Blasio said that any system that could have denied a candidate with over 125,000 signatures, more than 15 times the required 7,500 signatures is one in desperate need of reform. Our election laws are broken; they are not about inclusion, they are not about participation, they are about exclusion," de Blasio said today. If elected, he pledged that one of his first actions as Public Advocate would be to appoint a blue ribbon commission to examine current election laws and make recommendations for change.
He said that reform needs to take place both in the city and state election laws to ensure that a typo doesn't ever get any legitimate candidate thrown off the ballot, a situation that his colleague, City Council Member Alan J. Gerson (D Manhattan) is facing in his reelection bid. Gerson, an attorney from lower Manhattan was also denied a place on the ballot due to an error in his cover sheet. Gerson is also appealing, but was unavailable for comment Wednesday. Asked about Gerson, de Blasio said that he believed that he too deserved to have his name appear on the ballot.
Assembly Member Hakeem Jeffries (D - Bronx) summed things up saying, "Boss Tweed may be dead, but the election laws that helped to write are still alive and well."
The New York City Primary Election will be held on September 12. Polling sites will be open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.
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