Removed From Ballot --- For a Typo?

[kpete]

For a Typo?
Published: July 25, 2009

New York City’s election laws are notoriously unfair, and few events make that point as well as what happened on Thursday to City Councilman Bill de Blasio. Mr. de Blasio, a Democrat from Brooklyn, has been running for the job of public advocate for New York City. He has raised more than $1 million and courted thousands of voters. To get on the ballot, he needed 7,500 valid signatures of city voters. To be sure he got enough, his campaign gathered 125,000.

But Thursday afternoon, Mr. de Blasio’s name was removed from the Democratic Party line on the ballot by the New York City Board of Elections. The reason? A cover page on his packet of signatures said that there were 131 folders when there were actually 132.

To drop a candidate for that kind of picayune mistake is so outrageous that even Mr. de Blasio’s three main competitors in the race have supported his right to be on the ballot.

The treatment of Mr. de Blasio, who is expected to appeal, is a reminder of how easy it is to squeeze out the competition in New York elections. The city’s board of elections has 10 commissioners — one Republican and one Democratic appointee from each borough. Ideally, they are supposed to make certain voters have plenty of choices. Instead, this board and the State Legislature set these little traps that can send even the savviest candidates packing.

more:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/25/opinion/25sat2.html?_r=2&emc=eta1

[pleah]

1. K&R

[Bill Bored]

2. That's nothing. Wait till they get E-Vote Counting!

One reason why they have to resort to this kind of crap is because with the lever machines, they can't rig the count. So the cheating is all about ballot access and petitions.