Senate Bill S7675

                                
 
BILL NUMBER: S7675

SPONSOR: BOYLE
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the election law, in relation to the definition of the
term party

 
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:

This bill sets the number of votes that must be received in the last
gubernatorial election that are needed for a political organization to
count as a party to 50,000 for all elections conducted on and after

January, 1, 2020.  This bill also makes Paragraph A of part IV of the
final report of the campaign finance commission, issue on December 1,
2019, pursuant of part XXX of chapter 59 of the laws of 2019, which
changed the definition of the term `party' in subdivision 3 of section
1-105 of the election law, null and void.

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
              

  Section  1:  Defines  the  term  "party" as any political organization
which at the last preceding election for governor polled at least 50,000
votes for its candidate for governor. This applies to all  elections  on
and after January, 1, 2020.

  Section  2:  Makes  null paragraph A of part IV of the final report of
the campaign finance reform  commission,  recommending  changes  to  the
definition  of  the term "party" in subdivision 3 of section 1-104 of 11
the election law.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

This bill will undo the unnecessary and politically motivated changes to
the election law's treatment of third parties that were  recommended  by
the  Campaign Finance Commission established as part of the 2019 budget.
The Campaign Finance Commission  was  established  with  the  intent  of
setting  up  a  public  financing  system for New York State, but in the
course of doing so, this commission more  than  doubled  the  thresholds
that  must be met by political organizations to automatically qualify to
be on the ballot in New York State elections form 50,000 to 130,000.

This recommendation, made under the pretense of facilitating the  public
finance  system,  will  actually  just serve to further entrench the two
party rule that dominates US politics by indirectly  ending  the  fusion
voting  system  in  New  York  State.  New York State is one of the last
bastions of fusion voting, a system which enables disaffected voters who
are dissatisfied with the two major parties to support a candidate  with
a credible chance of winning on an alternative party

This  bill will return the party threshold to 50,000 votes and make null
the sections of the Campaign Finance Commission report that  change  the
definition  of  "party".  This  will  protect  the status of these third
parties and so preserve the important fusion voting system in  New  York
State.

 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

None.

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

None.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.