Call it a technicality, but City Councilmember and Public Advocate candidate Bill de Blasio now faces a court date next Tuesday to get back on the ballot for the September 15 Democratic primary.
The city’s Board of Elections threw de Blasio off the ballot last week after they found flaws in his cover sheet accompanyingthe 125,000-plus signatures on his petitions.
“Candidates for all citywide offices must have at least 7,500 signatures and submit them with a cover sheet and it must be in accordance with the designated nominating petition rules in accordance with New York State election laws,” said BOE spokesperson Valerie Vazquez.
Vazquez said a bipartisan BOE staff committee reviews all candidate cover sheets and noticed that de Blasio’s cover sheet claimed three extra pages of signatures.
According to election law, de Blasio’s campaign was notified and they had three days to rectify the errors, she said.
However, when the cover sheet was re-submitted, the board found the cover sheet indicated 131 pages of signatures when there were actually 132 pages, Vazquez said.
Vazquez said following the second mishap, the bipartisan board met and decided to remove de Blasio from the ballot.
One DOE source said these type of technicalities generally get novice candidates thrown off the ballot, but rarely if ever an established political professional like de Blasio.
De Blasio’s campaign attorney Henry Berger confirmed the error, but feels his client will prevail in court.
De Blasio’s campaign manager Jillian Waldman said in an emailed statement, “We are entirely confident we can resolve this matter working with the Board of Elections. We don’t believe the law was intended to prevent a candidate with over 125,000 signatures from getting on the ballot because of a typo.”
The camps de Blasio’s two main opponents, Eric Gioia and Mark Green, both said that if de Blasio has enough signatures he should be allowed on the ballot.
The campaign office for Norman Siegel, who’s also running for public advocate, did not return calls at press time.
