What is the fusion ballot?
A candidate can be on several different political party lines and then the votes on the different lines are added together.'
For example
Jones........................................................Smith
Republican.........1,102...........................Democratic.............1,190
Conservative.........251............................Working Families......209
Independence.........78.............................Reformed...................29
County unity.*....
......33.............................Plant more Trees..
......25
Total....................1,464............................................................1,453
So in the above example - even though Smith won between the Dems and Rep votes,
but adding in all the party lines - Jones is the actual winner.
The "County unity" and the "Plant more Trees" lines are facetious parties,
however candidates will often have an "independent line" with names such as I stated, for those
who may not want to vote on an organized Party line
and If I remember correctly, a party may not have the name "Independent" in it.
This has confused may people - they register for the Independence Party - thinking they have sign up as an "independent"
In NY State - there is no such thing as an "independent"
The other six parties are actual parties in NY State.
The two biggest "minor" party lines are Conservative and Working Families.
(About 20 years ago, the Working Families replaced the Liberal Party)
The Conservative ensures that the Rep dont put candidates who are too liberal
and the Working Family ensues the Dems dont put up candidates who are too conservative.
(that is the basic theory, but there are other considerrtions.
So if one of those other parties do not endorse the major party line - it could make a big difference.
For presidential and Governor elections - it has not been unusual to have a dozen party lines listed
Election results[edit]
Gubernatorial election in New York, 2006 [20]
Party Candidate Running mate Votes Percentage Swing
Democratic Eliot Spitzer 2,740,864 58.34%
26.84%
Independence Eliot Spitzer 190,661 4.06%
10.22%
Working Families Eliot Spitzer 155,184 3.30%
1.32%
Total
Eliot Spitzer David Paterson 3,086,709 65.70%
32.20%
Republican John Faso 1,105,681 23.54%
22.00%
Conservative John Faso 168,654 3.59%
0.27%
Total
John Faso C. Scott Vanderhoef 1,274,335 27.12%
22.28%
Green Malachy McCourt Brian Jones 42,166 0.89%
0.02%
Libertarian John Clifton Chris Edes 14,736 0.31%
0.20%
Rent Is Too Damn High
Jimmy McMillan None 13,355 0.28% N/A
Socialist Workers
Maura DeLuca Ben O'Shaughnessy 5,919 0.13% N/A
Blank, Void, Scattering 116,622 5.55%
Majority 1,812,374 38.58%
22.68%
Totals 4,437,220 100.00%