Appeals Court rules Kryzan can't have Working Families ballot line : Home: The Buffalo News

So, here's the thing. The Working Families Party had a candidate for New York's 26th Congressional District. The candidate recently moved to Washington, D.C. to take a job there and he informed the appropriate election authorities. Thus, his candidacy was effectively withdrawn since he is no longer a New York State resident. The Working Families Party decided it wanted to replace its former candidate by endorsing (stupidly, in my opinion) the Democrat. The Republican candidate sued to stop the Working Families Party from switching out its candidate. A state court ruled against the Republican candidate but he appealed to federal court. The District Court judge essentially ruled that taking the original candidate off the ballot would disenfranchise those voters who already voted by absentee ballot. The Second Circuit concurred with the decision and decided the original candidate could not be replaced.

Here in New York State parties are largely interchangeable (the Libertarian Party is the exception) as they routinely endorse candidates from other parties. In my county, for example, the "Republican" candidate for District Attorney is one of two Democrats that lost the Democrat primary to the Democrat candidate that is now on the ballot. There's a Democrat in another race that is also on the ballot under the Conservative Party.

Maybe instead of listing candidates, the ballots should list the political parties.

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A panda walks into a cafe. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air.

"Why?" asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes toward the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.

"I'm a panda," he says at the door. "Look it up."

The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation.

"Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."