Hawkins/Mattera for NY

5/5/22 - Green candidates and officials today said the Legislature’s rapid replacement of Brian Benjamin with Antonio Delgado on the primary ballot showed they could act quickly to correct deficiencies in election law, and called on them to restore fairer signature and ballot access requirements for independent statewide candidates and political parties.

“There are seven weeks until the statewide primary, and the Legislature acted rapidly to allow former Lt. Gov. Brian Benjamin, who is accused of serious crimes, to be removed from the ballot. The Green Party has been calling on the Legislature to restore the former petitioning and ballot access laws for two years, only to be ignored or rebuffed by Legislators. That is why we call on the Legislature to do so today: if you can make ballot access fairer for the Governor’s chosen candidate, you can do so for independent candidates and parties. There’s no excuse,” said Green Party gubernatorial candidate Howie Hawkins.

“We are being asked to jump the highest hurdle in the nation to regain ballot access we had won in 2018 for four years - and which was cut short in 2020 by Andrew Cuomo and the Legislature. We have 42 days to collect 45,000 valid signatures, which realistically means closer to 90,000 given likely challenges. No other state has such draconian laws. With a simple vote and a stroke of a pen, the Legislature and Gov. Hochul could restore the pre-2020 ballot access requirements: 15,000 statewide signatures. As today shows, there’s still plenty of time to do so. If they’re interested in democracy, they will,” concluded state Green Party co-chair and Lt. Gov. candidate Gloria Mattera.