An important change in City elections kicks in this year and very few people seem to know about it.
Because of changes in the City Charter, that override the State Election law in local elections, the signature requirements to get on the ballot have been lowered drastically.
To get on the Democratic & Republican Primary ballots, citywide candidates now will need 3.750 signatures rather than 7,500, Borough President Candidates number has dropped from 4,000 to 2,000.
City Council numbers are now 450 instead of 900 for either Primary designating petitions or independent candidates.
Expect to see more races with large fields and more candidates winning Primaries with less the 1/3 of the vote.
FYI – in 2009, there were 14 Democratic Primaries where there were 5 or more candidates (including Public Advocate and 6 where the winner received less than 35% of the vote.