SAM Party v. Kosinski

483 F.Supp.3d 245

SAM PARTY et al., Plaintiffs,

v.KOSINSKI et al., Defendants.

Hurley et al., Plaintiffs,

v.Kosinski et al., Defendants.

20-cv-323 (JGK)

20-cv-4148 (JGK)

United States District Court, S.D. New York.

Signed September 1, 2020

Brette Morgan Tannenbaum, Eric Alan Stone, Paul Weiss, New York, NY, Kannon K. Shanmugam, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, Washington, DC, for Plaintiffs.

Daniel Robert Lecours, Harris Beach PLLC, Albany, NY, Elliot Aaron Hallak, Kelly Foss, Kyle Douglas Gooch, Harris Beach PLLC, Pittsford, NY, Thomas John Garry, Harris Beach PLLC, Uniondale, NY, for Defendants Peter S. Kosinski, Andrew J. Spano, Todd D. Valentine, Robert A. Brehm.

Daniel Robert Lecours, Harris Beach PLLC, Albany, NY, Douglas A. Kellner, Kellner Herlihy Getty & Friedman LLP, New York, NY, Elliot Aaron Hallak, Kelly Foss, Kyle Douglas Gooch, Harris Beach PLLC, Pittsford, NY, Thomas John Garry, Harris Beach PLLC, Uniondale, NY, for Defendant Douglas A. Kellner.

OPINION AND ORDER

JOHN G. KOELTL, District Judge:

The plaintiffs, recognized New York State political parties and their supporters, challenge recent amendments to the requirements to be recognized as a "party" under the New York Election Law. The plaintiffs allege that these amendments violate their First Amendment and Fourteenth Amendment rights. The New York Election Law provision at issue was amended by the New York State Legislature to increase the overall number of votes required for a political organization to qualify as a "party" (hereafter, "Party Qualification Threshold") and the frequency with which parties must requalify ("Party Qualification Method"). As amended, a political organization must receive the greater of 130,000 votes or 2 percent of votes cast in the previous presidential or gubernatorial election, whichever is more recent. As a result, party status is now to be reviewed biennially, based on the votes received by a political organization's candidate in the previous gubernatorial or presidential election, beginning with the presidential election in November 2020.

The SAM Party of New York, an abbreviation for the "Serve America Movement" Party, and its Chairman, Michael A. Volpe, (together, the "SAM Party" or "SAM Party plaintiffs") challenge the inclusion of a political organization's performance in presidential elections as part of the Party Qualification Method, arguing that such a requirement, as applied to the SAM Party, violates the First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and association, and the equal protection and due process protections of the Fourteenth Amendment of the SAM Party and its supporters.

Linda Hurley, Rev. Rex Stewart, Robert Jackson, Richard N. Gottfried, Yuh-line Niou, Anita Thayer, Jonathan Westin, the New York State Committee of the Working Families Party, the Executive Board of the New York State Committee of the Working Families Party, and the Working Families Party of New York State, (together, the "WFP" or "WFP plaintiffs") challenge both the Party Qualification Method and Party Qualification Threshold, both facially and as applied to the WFP, as a violation of their right to freedom of association and the equal protection and due process protections of the Fourteenth Amendment.¹

Both the SAM Party and the WFP have brought suit, pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983, against Todd D. Valentine and Robert A. Brehm, the Co-Execute Directors of the New York State Board of Elections, and Peter S. Kosinski, Douglas A. Kellner, and Andrew J. Spano, the Commissioners of the New York State Board of Elections (the "Board"), each in their official capacities. Both the SAM Party and the WFP have moved for a preliminary injunction to enjoin the application of the party qualification requirements.

Because the SAM Party and the WFP plaintiffs have failed to demonstrate that allowing the amended party qualification requirements to take effect would violate their Constitutional rights, otherwise cause irreparable harm to the plaintiffs, or be against the public interest, their motions are denied.

I.

a.

Under the New York Election Law, a political organization that supports candidates for public office can be designated either as a "party" or an "independent body." N.Y. Elec. Law §§ 1-104(3), (12). Pursuant to amendments to the New York Election Law that became effective on April 3, 2020, to qualify as a party, a political organization's candidate for governor or president must have received the greater of 130,000 votes, or 2 percent of the total votes cast, in the most recent presidential or gubernatorial election. N.Y. Elec. Law § 1-104(3). Because New York gubernatorial elections occur off-cycle from presidential elections, this definition requires existing parties to requalify biennially. A political organization that fails to satisfy such requirements is an "independent organization." N.Y. Elec. Law § 1-104(12).

Parties, under the New York Election Law, are entitled to certain benefits, and are subject to certain requirements, which independent organizations are not. First, a party receives a "berthing" on general election ballots for president, governor, and other statewide elections, and for special elections and state supreme court elections, without the need to submit voter signatures. N.Y. Elec. Law §§ 6-102, 6-104, 6-106, 6-114. Such secured ballot access is often referred to as "automatic" ballot access. Brehm Decl. ¶ 5. This "berthing" is reserved for the winner of the party's nomination process, and the requirements for obtaining a party's nomination vary with the office sought. N.Y. Elec. Law §§ 6-104, 6-114, 6-136, 7-104(5) ; Brehm Decl. ¶¶ 6-7. For those races in which a candidate must participate in a party primary, New York conducts primary elections to assist parties with selecting their nominees for certain offices, including Congressional and state legislature positions. Brehm ¶ 7.

By contrast, independent bodies nominate candidates directly onto the general election ballot, through submitting independent nominating petitions, which must include a specified number of signatures from registered voters, with different requirements depending on the public office sought. N. Y. Elec. Law § 6-142. The New York Election Law also supplies a third path for would-be public officeholders through write-in votes on the ballot.²

Parties enjoy other practical benefits under the New York Election Law. For example, parties are permitted to maintain a segregated account, often called a "housekeeping account," to pay for the maintenance of its headquarters and party staff, to which ordinary contributions limits do not apply. Brehm Decl. ¶ 12; N.Y. Elec. Law § 14-124(3). Registered parties also appear on voter-registration forms so that voters can register as party members, N.Y. Elec. Law § 5-300, enabling parties greater ease in connecting with potential supporters.

Parties are also subject to certain regulatory requirements. For example, parties must establish certain committees, have certain officers, and submit certain filings with the Board. See, e.g., N.Y. Elec. Law §§ 2-102, 2-104, 2-106, 2-112, 2-114.

New York has a relatively high number of parties, which may be attributable to New York's embrace of fusion voting. Mulroy Decl. ¶ 43. Fusion voting allows candidates nominated by more than one party or independent body to appear on a ballot multiple times, and as affiliated with each of the candidate's nominating organizations. N.Y. Elec. Law § 7-104.³ While a cross-nominated candidate's votes are "fused" across party or independent organization lines for purposes of the election, votes cast for the candidate count as votes for the party or independent organization on whose ballot line the voter selected, including for purposes of party requalification. Some have asserted that fusion voting enables minor parties to secure more votes in elections and enjoy greater influence. See, e.g., Mulroy Decl. ¶ 44. Both the SAM Party and the WFP have taken advantage of New York's fusion voting to cross-nominate candidates who are members of and have been nominated by different parties. Volpe Decl. ¶ 24; Nnaemeka, Decl. ¶ 10.

Prior to 2020, the New York party qualification requirements mandated an existing party to requalify every four years, by receiving over 50,000 votes in the gubernatorial election. Brehm Decl. ¶¶ 25-26. The party qualification threshold had remained at 50,000 votes for 85 years, despite the New York electorate experienced over a 2.5-fold increase over the period, increasing from close to 5 million in 1935 to nearly 13 million registered voters as of February 2020. Mulroy Decl. ¶ 12.

b.

The amended party qualification requirements that the plaintiffs challenge developed from the recommendations of a special commission, established to design a public campaign finance system for New York State and recommend electoral reforms. Part XXX of the Fiscal Year 2020 Enacted Budget created the New York State Campaign Finance Review Commission (the "Commission") as a "public campaign financing and election commission to examine, evaluate and make recommendations for new laws." 2019 N.Y. Sess. Laws, Ch. 59, Part XXX, § 1. Part XXX instructed the Commission to make its recommendations "in furtherance of the goals of incentivizing candidates to solicit small contributions, reducing the pressure on candidates to spend inordinate amounts of time raising large contributions for their campaigns, and encouraging qualified candidates to run for office." Id. The Commission was instructed to provide recommendations for a variety of aspects relating to the administration of a voluntary public campaign finance system, including contribution limits, appropriate ratios for contribution matching, regulatory compliance requirements, and penalties for violations of public financing rules. 2019 N.Y. Sess. Laws Ch. 59, Part XXX § 2.

The Commission was also instructed specifically to "determine and identify new election laws" relating to,...