After weeks of litigation regarding the legality of his opponent’s signatures collected for the June primary, Democratic congressional candidate Pat Halpin is set to become the party’s nominee for November’s election.
Suffolk County Supreme Court Justice John J. Leo ruled that Democratic candidate Jessica Murphy be removed from the June primary ballot after a line-by-line review of signatures Murphy’s team collected left her around two dozen signatures short of qualifying for the primary, leaving Halpin with no opponents for the party’s nomination.
“We respect the court’s decision and appreciate the careful review of the petitions according to N.Y. State law,” Halpin said in a statement. “My full focus now is replacing Andrew Garbarino, who’s just not doing his job to oversee the Trump Administration.”
A Halpin campaign spokesperson added that their team is looking to unite the Democratic Party around a common cause ahead of the November election, and that Halpin has been talking with Murphy’s supporters, many of whom are upset about the court’s ruling.
In early April, Democratic congressional candidates Halpin, Murphy, and Garrett Petersen submitted petitions to the State Board of Elections to qualify for the June primary ballot.
The Halpin and Murphy teams quickly challenged Petersen’s petitions, arguing they lacked sufficient valid signatures to qualify. Democratic congressional candidates must receive 1,250 valid signatures.
And while Petersen received around 1,270 signatures, Halpin and Murphy both alleged that enough signatures contained incorrect information to invalidate Petersen from the ballot. Petersen accepted this and soon dropped out of the race, endorsing whoever became the Democratic nominee.
Along with the Petersen challenge, Halpin’s team challenged Murphy’s signatures with the State Board of Elections and Suffolk County Supreme Court, alleging that around 700 of the almost 1,900 signatures Murphy collected were invalid.
The Halpin team alleged that hundreds of Murphy’s signatories weren’t registered Democrats, provided inaccurate addresses, and didn’t live in the district, among other complaints.
The State Board of Elections, on April 20, reported that 507 of Murphy’s signatures were invalid, leaving her with 1,380 valid signatures—enough to qualify for the primary. A few days later, a line-by-line review by the Suffolk County Supreme Court found that of the 1,380 signatures, 156 were invalid, leaving Murphy 26 signatures short of qualifying.
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