Why Is There No UES Primary This Year? Paperwork.

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — Todd Stein has a lot of explaining to do.

After getting nearly 2,000 signatures during the notoriously tough petitioning season, he felt good about his chances as an outsider, first-time candidate for 76th District Leader, Part A.

But a paperwork snafu disqualified Stein — and canceled the neighborhood's only primary — all because his lawyer neglected to note that Stein, who grew up in the neighborhood, was a Male candidate on his official filing.

That means none of the 1,800 people Stein says signed his petitions have a chance to vote.

And he has to explain what happened when he runs into them in the neighborhood, one by one.

"I was at my surgeon the other day," Stein, 57, told Patch, "and when I told him what happened, he thought it was ridiculous."

Missing Paper Work

Not everyone thought it was ridiculous. Namely, election officials.

The Board of Elections booted Stein from the ballot, and a subsequent judge and appellate court agreed, propelling his opponent, Ben Askelrod — who also had the support of local elected officials and the lively Four Freedoms Democratic Club — to the position unopposed late last month.

District Leader positions — unpaid, part-time entry-level local party positions that help with balloting and other party activities — have been split with a separate position for male and female since 1920 thanks to efforts by Eleanor Roosevelt and the League of Women Voters to give women access to political power.

The system has more recently been criticized for being anachronistic, and in 2022, Gov. Hochul gave it a slight upgrade by allowing candidates to self-identify as male, female or non-binary on their filing.

As long as two different genders serve as district leader, Roosevelt's system prevails.

While legally an upgrade was made, the paperwork did not receive a similar review.

The form does not have any entry field, box or any indication to mark gender anywhere. Prior to 2022, the gender was part of the position name, like District Leader Male, for example.

Stein says is part of the reason for this error to begin with.

"If there was a box to check or an entry field for gender, we wouldn't be having this conversation," Stein said.

And the experienced election lawyer — and district leader — who Stein paid to help him make sure everything was correct, even emailed dozens of incumbents on behalf of the BOE advising them where to mark M, F, or X gender ("after the name of the candidate, not after the office," the email, filed in court records, reads).

Stein, his client, said he did not receive the same guidance.

Balloting Is Big Part Of The Job

Once the BOE came wise to the error after a series of routine petition challenges, it was all over, despite a letter explaining what was called a "printer's error."

While the BOE, and later judges, didn't make the claim that Stein was being duplicitous with voters regarding his gender — the BOE even deemed both arguments in the case to be "very interesting," according to a transcript provided by Stein — allowing him to cure his paperwork could open the doors for less-ethical candidates to manipulate the Roosevelt District Leader system.

Prospective district leaders could theoretically wait for the last minute to suddenly and conveniently self-identify to their electoral advantage, the BOE said at the initial hearing.

Outgoing district leader, Ben Wetzler, said that part of the district leader is getting candidates on the ballot, and that even having a lawyer to fill out the paperwork for the position was unusual.

"I ran three times and never needed an attorney," he said.

Wetzler, who supported Askelrod, pointed out that some other candidates used last year's sheets for their filings, but because the gender information was included, the BOE accepted it.

Stein's paperwork was rejected because "he didn't fill the whole thing out," said Wetzler.

Akselrod told the New York Post last month that it was Stein's responsibility to follow the law. “Paperwork is essential to the role," he said.

"He Got His Name Out There"

The BOE can be strict when it comes to campaign filings.

During the summer of 2020, incumbent Upper East Side Assembly Member Rebecca Seawright was forced to run on an independent party line when her filing to run as a Democrat arrived to the BOE one day late. The board was unmoved by her argument that she had COVID-19.

But despite the seeming capriciousness of the board, one of Stein's supporters, Sally Weiner, 85, said that the first-time candidate should keep his head up.

Paperwork snafus can happen, she said, and it's better to learn and then plan your next move.

"He's got his name out there, he got some experience," she said, "next time he'll do even more."

Still, she was disappointed that she couldn't vote for Stein.

"What a shame," Weiner said.