City Council candidates are asking for signatures to get on ballot, despite lawsuit

An Asian American group is trying to halt petitioning and get new districts drawn [FORWARD TO A FRIEND]( [VIEW IN BROWSER]( [DONATE]( [WNYC Politics Brief] City Council candidates hit the streets for petitioning even as lawsuit looms [By Brigid Bergin]( [an empty City Council chamber] Felix Lipov New Yorkers shouldn’t be surprised to encounter clipboard-toting City Council candidates or campaign volunteers starting Tuesday — despite an ongoing lawsuit that sought to halt the start of [the petitioning process for upcoming elections](. Late Monday, a Manhattan judge refused a request filed by the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund to delay the start of petitioning, the process wherein candidates seek the hundreds of signatures required to get their names on the ballot. (Just how many signatures are needed by the April 6 deadline [isn't quite settled]( — city law says 450, while state law says 900.) AALDEF [filed a lawsuit against the New York City Districting Commission]( last Friday, arguing that the newly drawn Council district lines do not allow for "fair and effective representation" of the city’s racial and language minority groups. Specifically, the group wanted the court to order the commission to create a new "opportunity district" for Asian American voters in the Queens neighborhoods of Richmond Hill and Ozone Park, and halt the start of the petitioning process until new maps could be drawn. Instead, Justice Leslie Stroth set a hearing date for March 7, a week into the petitioning process. An attorney for the plaintiffs said they are still committed to fighting for new district lines, but others warn that the timing of the lawsuit may pose a problem for candidates in the upcoming election. "Courts are reluctant to interfere in the electoral process this close to an election," said Ali Najmi, an election attorney from Queens who is not linked to the current litigation and is representing several incumbent councilmembers in this year’s election. "However, there is another City Council election in two years and it is conceivable that if a court finds their claim meritorious then relief could be granted in advance of the 2025 election." All 51 Council seats are up for election this year with incumbents and some newcomers competing to represent would-be constituents in newly drawn districts, the result of a process that happens every 10 years following the latest census count. All primary races, which are scheduled for June 27, will be conducted using [ranked-choice voting](. 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