According to the New York State Board of Elections, if Robert F. Kennedy Jr. hits the 2% or 130,000 voter threshold in this year's presidential race, "We the People" would be a new, official political party in the state with ballot access for two years.
But there are still plenty of hurdles to overcome before that happens, thanks in part to an election law change that went into effect before the 2020 race.
Prior to the 2020 election cycle, political parties in New York state would automatically gain a ballot line for the next four years if their candidates received at least 50,000 votes during a gubernatorial election.
However, four years ago, New York Public Interest Research Group Executive Director Blair Horner says the state changed the threshold.
Now in order to be recognized, a party's candidate must collect at least 2% of the total votes cast for governor, or 130,000 votes — whichever is higher — and the same for presidential elections.
"You have this sort of new sort of system in place which makes it harder to maintain that line and to get on the line, and that's why there's really only four official parties in New York state when there used to be a lot more," said Horner.
Following 2020, the minor party pool in New York dropped from six to two, with parties like Libertarian, Green and Independence failing to meet the threshold.
Read the full article here.
