The campaigns of both Democratic Party Presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders announced they handed in more than enough signatures ahead of today’s deadline to get their candidate on the ballot for the April 19 New York State Presidential Primary.
The campaigns also said they will have a full slate of delegates going to the National Convention in Philadelphia this summer.
The Sanders campaign said they filed 80,000 petition signatures to put Bernie on the ballot with each of the State’s 27 Congressional Districts exceeding the required delegate slate signatures.
“This is what democracy looks like!” said New York City Council Member Rafael Espinal (Cypress Hills, Bushwick, Oceanhill-Brownsville, East New York) who was among the elected officials involved in getting signatures for sanders.
“I can’t recall any campaign collecting this many petitions signatures through an all-volunteer army. Bernie’s message is clearly resonating with the people. It was truly inspiring to see the positive reception and support among the Latino and Black communities in Bushwick and across the city, and we’re just getting started,” he added.
The Sanders team collecting signatures also had a number of grassroots Brooklyn-related organizations including the Working Families Party, Team Bernie NY, the Bushwick Berners, Latinos for Bernie and African-American for Bernie.
Magenna Brink, Ballot Access Director for the Bushwick Berners, a grassroots Bernie group based in Espinal’s District, said organizing the neighborhood for Bernie started in July. “It was amazing to see such an outpouring of support from our volunteers who braved the cold and snow to gather petitions for Bernie,” she said.
Sanders also received support in the petition drive from Robert Carroll, Executive Board Member of Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats.
Clinton has strong support from Kings County Democratic Party Chair Frank Seddio along with his powerful Thomas Jefferson Democratic Club, and both the County and State Democratic organizations.
“Brooklyn had the highest number of signatures than any county in the state,” said Seddio. “You need 5,000 signatures to get on the New York State Presidential Primary ballot, and our county by itself collected 5,100 signatures. So Brooklyn individually had enough signatures to put Hillary on the ballot.”
Seddio said the Thomas Jefferson Club alone brought in 2,700 signatures – the most of any club in the state. “We put our money where our mouth is and in April we will do as well in getting her the most delegates for the convention in the state,” he said.
