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De Blasio Off Public Advocate Ballot, Due To Petition Oops
By
Jen Chung
Published Jul 24, 2009
Modified Jul 24, 2009
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By
Jen Chung
Published Jul 24, 2009
Modified Jul 24, 2009
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Yesterday, it was revealed that City Councilman Bill De Blasio was kicked off the ballot for the Public Advocate primary. Why? The Daily Politics' Elizabeth Benjamin, which calls the city's petition rules "infamously archaic and exacting," explains, "One false move - a misplaced numeral or missing period - and you're dead, which is why campaigns spend so much money on election attorneys. In this case, the problem was that de Blasio's cover sheet claimed there were 131 volumes of petitions, when in reality there were 132. This may seem trivial, but it was sufficient grounds for the rejection of all the Brooklyn Democrat's 125,000+ signatures." De Blasio's campaign believes that the issue can be resolved with the Board of Elections, and all three of his Democratic opponents told PolitickerNY that he should be on the ballot: Norman Siegel said, "Technicalities should not prevent a candidate from being on the ballot," and Mark Green chimed in with, "This super-technical violation shouldn't keep him off the ballot - but should lead to reforming ballot access laws," and Gioia said, "If he met all the requirements he should be put back on the ballot. Regardless, our campaign will continue to move ahead at full speed no matter what the courts decide." Photo: thepodger on Flickr
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bill de blasio
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Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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