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NYC mayoral ballots are all but set, even if candidates drop out of the race
By
Brigid Bergin
Published Sep 8, 2025
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CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP via Getty Images
By
Brigid Bergin
Published Sep 8, 2025
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Former federal prosecutor and independent mayoral candidate Jim Walden last week announced he was dropping out of New York City’s mayoral race. There’s just one problem: His name will still appear on voters’ ballots in November’s general election.
That reality is at the center of a likely showdown Tuesday between Walden and the New York City Board of Elections commissioners. Walden is fighting to get his name off the ballot in an effort to fulfill his principled pledge to get out of the race if he couldn’t establish himself as the best candidate to challenge Democratic nominee and frontrunner Zohran Mamdani.
“If my name remains on the ballot, voters will be confused and lured to vote for me, despite my timely withdrawal. This is unfair to voters and the remaining candidates,” Walden, who has never polled above 3%, said in a statement. “Nothing in the law prevents the Board from removing my name before the ballot is certified. I hope that avoiding voter confusion remains the Board’s top priority.”
His feud with the Board of Elections highlights a harsh reality for political operatives who seek to turn the general election into a one-on-one contest between Mamdani and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who’s running as an independent in November after losing the Democratic primary in June. At this point in the election cycle, there’s almost no way to remove a candidate's name from the ballot.
“ I respect Mr. Walden's desire to not run, but the election law doesn't just work that way,” said Vincent Ignizio, the deputy executive director of the New York City Board of Elections.
Under New York state election law, candidates like Walden, Cuomo and Mayor Eric Adams who filed independent nominating petitions to appear on the general election ballot without winning a primary, needed to decline their ballot line by May 30. Ignizio said there are only three ways for a candidate to be removed from the ballot at this point: Death, running for a judgeship or moving out of state.
Walden plans to appeal to the Board of Elections' 10 commissioners at their weekly meeting on Tuesday, and said he’s prepared to go to court if they refuse to remove his name. But there is little time for such litigation to play out. The Board plans to finalize ballots on Thursday, Sept. 11 and to begin mailing ballots to permanent absentee voters on Sept. 19.
Seasoned campaign consultants said Walden’s predicament also affects Adams, who on Friday held a press conference in an attempt to quash reports he was preparing to drop out of the race and accept a job with the Trump administration.
“You can’t get off the ballot,” said George Artz, who has worked on New York City campaigns since the Koch administration. “I don’t think anyone is willing to die for this. People just don’t know the law.”
Talk of a one-on-one race picked up steam last week when President Trump floated his preference for a narrower field of candidates trying to block Mamdani.
But despite Trump’s own New York roots, Artz noted, “He doesn’t know the law either.”
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Brigid Bergin
Brigid Bergin is an award-winning senior reporter on the People and Power desk. She is fiercely committed to telling stories that help people engage and support democracy. In 2022, she hosted a live, ten-week call-in politics show ahead of the midterm elections called The People's Guide to Power. Brigid's reporting in 2017 included some of the first coverage of a political newcomer now known as AOC. In 2016, she broke the news of a voter purge in Brooklyn just days before New York’s presidential primary, triggering city, state and federal investigations. Brigid also guest hosts The Brian Lehrer Show and All Of It. She graduated from the University at Albany and the CUNY Newmark School of Journalism. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or Signal 917-723-4719.
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