Elon Musk, the tech billionaire who has endorsed Andrew M. Cuomo for New York City mayor, on Tuesday criticized the layout of the city’s ballots as a “scam,” adding to a number of social media posts from conservatives and Cuomo supporters raising questions about how they are formatted.
Mr. Musk complained about the position of Mr. Cuomo’s name on the ballot and the fact that it appeared only once, while his main rivals’ names appeared twice. But the listings are in keeping with the normal rules of New York City elections.
New York State recognizes four official parties — Democratic, Republican, Conservative and Working Families — and under state election law, a single candidate can be nominated by multiple parties and/or independent bodies, according to Kathleen McGrath, the director of public information for the State Board of Elections. Independent candidates running outside the parties appear once, she said.
Zohran Mamdani appears twice on the ballot, on lines for the Democratic Party and the Working Families Party, a left-leaning progressive party, because he won both the Democratic nomination and the W.F.P.’s endorsement. And Curtis Sliwa appears twice because he won the nomination for the Republican Party and chose to also run under the independent “Protect Animals” line in hopes of winning over animal lovers.
Mr. Cuomo chose to run as an independent after losing the Democratic primary to Mr. Mamdani, and his ballot line is called “Fight and Deliver.” As a seasoned politician, he could be expected to know that he would be listed only once under that line.
Mr. Musk also complained that Mr. Cuomo’s name appeared in a less-than-ideal position on the second row. However, that position was determined by set factors. Under state election law, the order of the parties on the ballot goes by the number of votes their nominees received in the most recent election for governor, from highest to lowest. Independents are listed after that, Ms. McGrath said, in the order of when the New York City Board of Elections received their independent nominating petitions. Mr. Cuomo’s name appears in the second-to-last position because he was second to last to file.
Mr. Musk and other conservatives also criticized the election for not requiring voters to show identification. Many states, however, do not have such a requirement, to keep voting as accessible as possible. New Yorkers provide identification when they register to vote and are matched by their addresses and signatures when they arrive at a poll site before they receive a paper ballot. In those cases of first-time voters who have not provided identification by Election Day, voting is possible via affidavit ballot, but not via the poll site scanners, according to the city’s Board of Elections.
There were other complaints that Mayor Eric Adams’s name still appeared on the ballot. This was expected, because Mr. Adams abandoned his floundering campaign just five weeks before Election Day, after the deadline to change it had passed. Jim Walden, who ran as an independent before dropping his campaign and backing Mr. Cuomo, appeared on the ballot for the same reason.
Anushka Patil is a Times reporter covering breaking and developing news around the world.
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