Onondaga County voters will likely notice candidates on the ballot running on party lines they’ve never heard of.
Whether there’s someone running on an independent party line largely depends on where you live. There’s the Brighter Baldwinsville party, Friends of Van Buren, Solvay Citizens United, and Onondaga Forward to name a few of the 17 across the county. Democratic county elections commissioner Dustin Czarny said it doesn't mean there are more candidates on the ballot.
“It must be said that these are not independent candidates for the most part," he said. "Most of these candidates appear on a major party line. And because of our unique system of fusion voting in New York, it allows their name to appear multiple times.”
So why make the effort to secure petition signatures and do other paperwork? Republican elections commissioner Kevin Ryan pointed at the sharp political divide and the high number of voters not enrolled in any party as possible reasons.
“If someone's running and they're a Democrat or Republican, they sometimes get concerned that people that want to vote for them won't under any circumstances pull the Democrat or Republican lines," he said. "So they create another line to give them their voters someplace else to go.”
There are races with actual independent candidates. Most notably Alfonso Davis and Tim Rudd are running for Syracuse mayor against two others on the major party lines. Then, Ryan noted, there’s the county legislature’s 9th district race with no one on the Democratic party line.
“Nicole Watts is on the Working Families Party line and an independent line," he said. "Kenyatta Callaway, who was the endorsed candidate of the Democratic Committee has her own independent line. So that's going to be an interesting race.”
A judge ruled this spring that no one could run on the Democratic line after incumbent Palmer Harvey submitted fraudulent petition signatures. Bonnke Sekarore is running on the Republican line in a district that’s elected a Democrat for over a decade.
The only candidate in recent memory to win an election as a true independent was outgoing Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh.
