Times Union
THE ISSUE:
Republicans and Democrats use the “opportunity to ballot” rules to steal minor-party ballot lines.
THE STAKES:
It’s a prescription for corruption and confusion, and the state should forbid the practice.
Carmella Mantello is not a member of the Green Party and she surely shares few of the progressive party’s views. Yet Ms. Mantello, the Republican president of the Troy City Council, will be the Greens’ representative on the ballot this fall as she runs for re-election.
Such deception is possible because of a process called “opportunity to ballot,” which is legal in New York but is often unethically exploited by Democrats and Republicans alike.
It works like this: When a minor party fails to nominate a candidate for an upcoming election, operatives from Democratic or Republican parties collect signatures from registered members of the minor party to open a write-in primary election.
Anyone, regardless of party affiliation, can then receive write-in votes in that primary. Well-organized Republican or Democratic candidates can thus make off with the minor-party ballot line, often with very few votes.
In Troy, for example, Ms. Mantello needed just 39 votes to win the Green Party nomination in last month’s primary. Green Party officials say political operatives greased her victory by enrolling former Republicans as Greens well before the election.
This isn’t illegal. But it is a corruption of the process, and it can help to create a bewildering ballot.
Indeed, Ms. Mantello will represent the Republican, Conservative, Independence and Green parties in November — quite an ideological range. That some voters will end up confused is precisely the point.
We have argued previously that New York should end fusion balloting, which allows candidates to appear on multiple ballot lines, along with the ability of political parties to cross-endorse. Those endorsements too often are tied to quid pro quo arrangements or blatant political favors.
To its credit, the Green Party, seeking to protect its brand and integrity, has avoided such horse trading: It generally declines to endorse candidates from other parties. But in election after election, the party’s ballot line has been hijacked by Democrats and Republicans through the opportunity to ballot rules.
This is bad for the Greens, obviously, whose distinctive message is muddled by candidates who don’t represent their views. It’s worse for voters who may be confused about what a party or candidate really stands for.
The Legislature could both end fusion balloting and curb the worst of opportunity to ballot trickery with one change to election law. Lawmakers could, and should, require that candidates run under just one party line at a time.
That wouldn’t stop Ms. Mantello from representing the Green Party, but it would limit her from simultaneously representing the Republican and other parties. In effect, she would have to demonstrate a real commitment to the Green Party’s goals and ideology. Think of it as the political equivalent of truth in advertising, and honest packaging.