Nassau County Legislator Judi Bosworth (D-Great Neck) was thrown off the Independence Party line for the Sept. 13 primary election after a successful lawsuit by her District 10 opponent, Republican Elizabeth Berney, a Great Neck resident who twice ran unsuccessful challenges against Congressman Gary Ackerman (D-Roslyn Heights).
“We’re reviewing our legal options,” Bosworth said. “I will continue to focus on fighting for the people of the 10th Legislative District on the issues that matter most. If others want to focus on political games, that’s up to them.”
Bosworth will retain the Working Families Party line only if a controversial GOP redistricting plan is upheld in an unrelated court case.
Bosworth currently represents all of Great Neck, Manhasset Hills, part of Herricks, Manhasset, Munsey Park, and North Hills in District 10. But a Nassau County redistricting map approved by the Republican majority would move the Village of Lake Success and part of the hamlet of University Gardens to Legislator Wayne Wink’s (D-Roslyn) District 11. The new District 10 would gain Port Washington and additional areas in Manhasset.
The GOP’s redistricting plan is currently before the Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court.
Although Bosworth was endorsed by the Independence Party, being listed on their ballot line requires 77 signatures from party members who live within the district. Bosworth was six signatures shy after 58 of the 129 signature she collected were ruled invalid.
New York State Supreme Court Judge Karen V. Murphy, a Republican, deemed signatures invalid for reasons that ranged from no last name to signatures not sufficiently similar to the one on file with the Nassau County Board of Elections.
Of the 58 deemed invalid, 10 were because a notary public was unidentifiable by signature and the town was incorrectly listed as “Town of NH,” six because a notary public wrote an illegible date (“The month appears to be August, but could be June or July”), one due to an altered date without initials, one due to a printed name, and one due to printed name and illegible date, according to court documents.
“There were ways to make sure you get enough signatures, and it is very embarrassing that she didn’t do that,” Berney said. “I know that when I was collecting signatures, I went out of my way to make sure I had enough signatures either way. It’s kind of embarrassing that a sitting legislator wouldn’t do that.”
Only three valid signatures are required for the Working Families Party ballot line, but of Bosworth’s five, two were deemed invalid because “the notary failed to fill in the total number of signatures in his statement,” according to the documents. A third signature is from a resident who lives within the new electoral district lines.
“There were challenges everywhere,” said Nassau County Democratic Committee Chairman Jay Jacobs. “This has been a very messy petitioning session.”
Jacobs said Republicans in Nassau County were also thrown off the Independence line.
“If you FOIL the Board of Elections for the voters in a particular new district, they can’t produce it,” he said. “You can’t get an accurate voter list for the new 19th district, let alone the party list. How do you run an election?”
