On Tuesday, Dec. 29, District 11 City Council candidate, Dan Padernacht, announced that he and some of the other City Council candidates in the District 11 race will be holding a press conference on Dec. 29 to call on Governor Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio to immediately waive the signature requirements for two NYC Council special elections that are to be called on or about Jan. 1, 2021, due to what Padernacht described as the inherent dangers associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.

To qualify for the ballot, each candidate in these special elections [in Districts 11 and 15] must obtain 450 signatures from voters in the district. Padernacht said most candidates seek two to three times that amount.

“With more than a dozen candidates in two upcoming special elections in the Northwest Bronx, the petitioning required to get on the ballot would create thousands of person-to-person contacts at a time when COVID infection rates are rising,” he said. “We need to protect, not endanger, the electorate we seek to serve.”

According to the New York City Department of Health & Mental Hygiene, there are 41,300 current cases of COVID-19 in New York City, and 20,055 COVID-related deaths to date in the city as of Dec. 27.

Padernacht said he is proposing that an emergency executive order be issued to waive the signature requirement for ballot access. As an alternative to the waiver, Padernacht said he would recommend a measure proposed by Council Member Ben Kallos by way of a bill in which ballot qualification is based on the campaign contribution threshold required under the NYC Campaign Finance Board matching funds program. For City Council candidates, that threshold is 75 donations of $10 each from district residents, and $5,000 from individuals living in New York City.

“As a last resort, signature requirements should be reduced to a minimal level, similar to what was implemented for the June 2020 primaries,” Padernacht said. “The health and well-being of NYC residents must not be placed at risk when there is an alternative. Government leaders must intervene on behalf of their safety.”

Norwood News reached out to both the governor’s and the mayor’s office for comment. We did not receive an immediate response.

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Welcome to the Norwood News, a bi-weekly community newspaper that primarily serves the northwest Bronx communities of Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham and University Heights. Through our Breaking Bronx blog, we focus on news and information for those neighborhoods, but aim to cover as much Bronx-related news as possible. Founded in 1988 by Mosholu Preservation Corporation, a not-for-profit affiliate of Montefiore Medical Center, the Norwood News began as a monthly and grew to a bi-weekly in 1994. In September 2003 the paper expanded to cover University Heights and now covers all the neighborhoods of Community District 7. The Norwood News exists to foster communication among citizens and organizations and to be a tool for neighborhood development efforts. The Norwood News runs the Bronx Youth Journalism Heard, a journalism training program for Bronx high school students. As you navigate this website, please let us know if you discover any glitches or if you have any suggestions. We’d love to hear from you. You can send e-mails to norwoodnews@norwoodnews.org or call us anytime (718) 324-4998.