Looks like they made it. Barely. Two left-of-center political parties have won the right to be placed on state ballots, but the final nod will have to wait until the legal war raging over the attorney general’s race is done, according to the state elections officials.
As of last Friday, both the Working Families Party (WFP) and the Green Party had both exceeded the 50,000 gubernatorial race tallies required for them to earn the right to automatically appear on state ballots for the next four years. The Greens, who backed Grandpa Al Lewis, won over 51,000 votes. The Working Families Party, founded by labor unions and ACORN, a grassroots organizing group, squeaked by with 50,340 votes, after backing defeated Democrat Peter Vallone.
“Absent any major changes, they made it,” said Todd Valentine, a special counsel with the state elections board. Valentine said the board will likely certify the election on December 13-if there are no new challenges to the validity of paper ballots in the as-yet undecided state AG’s race.