Silver's Many Signatures
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For those that want to get on the ballot this September in New York City, July 15 10 is the deadline to submit the signatures required, or, in the case of most candidates, including Sheldon Silver, more.
Silver's spokesman Jonathan Rosen e-mails, "More than 100 volunteers from across Lower Manhattan collected nearly 8,000 signatures to keep Shelly Silver as their voice in Albany." He also said that the Silver campaign has no plans to challenge anyone else's petitions.
The exact number of signatures required varies per district, but most Assembly candidates need only about 1,000 signatures to get on the ballot. Silver has two challengers also trying to get on the ballot.
It's always 500 signatures for Democrats.
The law is 500 signatures for Assembly members. In general, candidates whose petitions may be challenged try to get 3-4 times as many signatures as the law requires.
Of course, how those signatures are gathered can also make a difference. If the candidate's workers/volunteers go door-to-door using targeted "walk lists," then as few as 1.5 times the required number will often be enough to avoid a challenge, since the odds that those signatures are suspect are very small. If, however, the candidate's workers/volunteers gather signatures on street corners, street fairs, etc., then the odds of getting "bad" signatures is much higher, so the higher ratio is the goal.