In light of the increasing coronavirus cases confirmed by the Council Speaker Corey Johnson’s office yesterday, worry about the state of the upcoming local and congressional elections have been spreading like the notorious current pandemic.
In an effort to try and mitigate the spread of coronavirus, U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens) publicized the immediate suspension of her campaign’s petitioning efforts.
“Out of an abundance of caution and due to concerns about public health and safety, my campaign is immediately suspending efforts to collect further petition signatures for ballot access,” Maloney stated.
Petitioning plays a major role in a candidate’s campaign. It means canvassing areas to knock on residents’ doors and setting up information booths in largely populated regions to meet registered voters and get their approval to run. For a candidate to appear on the ballot for local, state and congressional races in New York, candidates must acquire between hundreds and thousands of signatures from their constituents, depending on the office.
Maloney isn’t the only one worried about being in close contact with a large number of people. Sandy Nurse, running against Darma Diaz and Misba Abdin in the special election race for city council district 37 to replace former city council member Rafael Espinal, sent an email to her supporters about her actions regarding the contagion,
“We will be suspending canvass and doorknocking activities for the time being, she wrote, “that doesn’t mean we still can’t talk to voters! Sign up to virtual phonebank from your house!”
Misba Abdin weighed in as well, telling Kings County Politics that he’s barred his volunteers from going out on behalf of his campaign and stopped petitioning for the time being. “We’re all very concerned,” he said, before letting on that he would be speaking to Nurse in a phone call later that evening regarding a conference about coronavirus in district 37.
Diaz commented that although she is concerned for the general health of the public the coronavirus has not impacted her petitioning process.
That was not the attitude of a large group of organizers who are calling on Governor Cuomo to reduce the number of signatures required to make the ballot. The rally, whose members consist of groups like the Founders of New Reformers, Empire State Indivisible, health professionals, and local elected officials, initially intended to take place on the steps of City Hall this Friday but was shifted to a virtual platform because of coronavirus.
“Asking people not to travel and go knock on doors is exactly what we are being advised by the Governor not to do,” said Ricky Silver, a spokesperson for Empire State Indivisible.
Both the NYS and NYC Board of Elections (BOE) acknowledged that lowering the threshold for petitioning or holding a suspension of elections would have to come directly from the Governor’s office. After various attempts, the Governor’s office did not respond to comment.
The state BOE noted, however, that they haven’t seen a decrease in signatures occurring as of late. An ironic sentiment to compare to State Senator Simcha Felder’s (D-Midwood, Flatbush, Borough Park, Kensington, Sunset Park, Madison, Bensonhurst) recognition that “I am noticing people are more hesitant to provide signatures.”
Assembly District 51 candidate Katherine Walsh (D-Sunset Park, Red Hook), is not only pausing her State Assembly campaign’s public collection of petitioning signatures but is also calling on her fellow candidates in the race to do so as well.
“Our campaigns should not be willing to compromise anyone’s health,” she wrote.
Along with Walsh in the race for district 51 assembly seat is current incumbent and Assistant Assembly Speaker Felix Ortiz, Marcela Mitaynes and Genesis Aquino.
