Yes, and they are not required to run in a primary because those are run by each party (being independent means you don’t have a party to begin with)
There’s no limit (AFAIK) to the number of candidates on the ballot, but there is a deadline to file and that deadline has passed. Cuomo had preemptively filed as an independent candidate in case he didn’t win the primary (I think Mamdani did this too), but had not publicly stated whether he would use it until now.
In some places in the US (I’ve never lived in NY, so I’m not sure if it applies there) when you file as an independent candidate, you have to produce a petition with a certain number of signatures with your paperwork.
This generally limits the number of crazy uncles who can appear on the ballot.
A couple months ago I ran into a guy collecting signatures for Cuomo by Atlantic center (a major transit hub in Brooklyn). I was just like “why?? Why are you doing this??” But sadly I was in a hurry and didn’t have time to engage with him very long
Yes, and they are not required to run in a primary because those are run by each party (being independent means you don’t have a party to begin with)
There’s no limit (AFAIK) to the number of candidates on the ballot, but there is a deadline to file and that deadline has passed. Cuomo had preemptively filed as an independent candidate in case he didn’t win the primary (I think Mamdani did this too), but had not publicly stated whether he would use it until now.
In some places in the US (I’ve never lived in NY, so I’m not sure if it applies there) when you file as an independent candidate, you have to produce a petition with a certain number of signatures with your paperwork.
This generally limits the number of crazy uncles who can appear on the ballot.
A couple months ago I ran into a guy collecting signatures for Cuomo by Atlantic center (a major transit hub in Brooklyn). I was just like “why?? Why are you doing this??” But sadly I was in a hurry and didn’t have time to engage with him very long