Four Queens Borough President Candidates Kicked Off The Ballot

QUEENS, NY — Board of Election commissioners on Tuesday struck four candidates from the ballot for the March 24 special election for Queens borough president, significantly narrowing what had been a crowded field to replace newly-elected Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz as leader of the borough.

Anthony Miranda, Danniel S. Maio, Everly Brown and Jusinta Jaggassar-Ernul will not appear on the ballot on March 24, the commissioners said during a public meeting Tuesday.

To get on the ballot, candidates for elected office have to collect 2,000 petitions from registered voters and send them to the NYC Board of Elections.

Election officials then check that the paperwork meets the board's list of strict rules on everything from how documents should be numbered and fastened to what information must be listed.

Miranda, a retired NYPD sergeant, was kicked off the ballot for missing information on his paperwork after filing amended documents with the agency last week.

Miranda's cover sheet, a document summarizing the rest of the candidate's paperwork, didn't include a statement certifying that he was authorized to file an amended cover sheet, election commissioners ruled.

In a phone interview, Miranda said the agency never notified him of the error so he could correct it. He called the agency's rules are "archaic" and plans to challenge the decision in court.

"These kind of minor infractions allow them to disenfranchise too many people," Miranda said.

Board of Election spokesperson Valerie Vazquez-Diaz did not immediately respond to a request for comment on why the agency didn't alert Miranda to the issue.

Maio, a mapmaker living in Forest Hills, was disqualified from the ballot after election commissioners determined more than a thousand of his petition signatures were invalid, leaving him roughly 500 signatures short of the required number. He was the lone Republican candidate.

The decision came in response to objections filed by Queens Republican Party chair Joann Ariola and Queens Conservative Party chair Tom Long, who are backing former Assistant District Attorney Jim Quinn — a Democrat.

Jaggassar-Ernul did not qualify for the ballot because she didn't submit the required 2,000 petition signatures, Board of Election commissioners said.

The commissioners ruled that Brown's cover sheet didn't meet the agency's series of guidelines, because it left off the name of his "independent body," or party.

That leaves City Council Member Costa Constantinides, former City Council Member Elizabeth Crowley, former Executive Assistant District Attorney Jim Quinn, City Council Member Donovan Richards and Bayside resident Dao Yin in the race.