Resource: Mujumder v. Bd. of Elections in the City of NY

By: COVID-Related Election Litigation Tracker

September 5, 2020

Stanford-MIT Healthy Elections Project

Petitioners filed designating petitions in order to be placed on the ballot for the Democratic Party primary election in June 2020. Petitioners failed to timely file cover sheets required in connection with such designating petitions, which delays they attributed to the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic (i.e., quarantine and illness). The NY Supreme Court denied Petitioners' petition to validate their designating petitions; however, the Appellate Division (First Department) unanimously reversed (validating the petitions). The Court of Appeals reversed the First Department's decision, denying Petitioners' petitions to validate their designating petitions (and resolving a departmental split as to whether the late filing of a portion of a designating petition (e.g., a cover sheet, a certificate of acceptance) constitutes a fatal defect that invalidates such a petition).

https://healthyelections-case-tracker.stanford.edu/detail?id=89