Council candidate Jennifer Gutiérrez (center) campaigns with Manhattan
Councilmember Carlina Rivera in Williamsburg. Juan Mayancela
COURIER LIFE, MARCH 19-25, 2021 5
BY KEVIN DUGGAN & BEN VERDE
As a line of mask-wearing
Brooklynites waited outside
the Park Slope CityMD on
Friday, would-be politico Justin
Krebs hustled through the
waiting crowd, collecting petitioning
signatures for his
nascent City Council bid.
After earning a signature
from a registered voter, Krebs
faced a few rejections — including
from one man who
told him curtly to “stop talking
to me,” and another from
a rubber-gloved man who
shooed him away for “distance.”
Making the rounds, Krebs
secured three signatures
from around a dozen linewaiters,
marking a below-average
showing according to
the candidate.
“I’ve done this line before
and I’ve probably got positive
engagement from about half,”
said the candidate vying for
the 39th Council District. “It’s
always interesting.”
The rules of the
(petitioning) road
The many political hopefuls
running for city offi ce and
their supporters have been
pounding the pavement since
early March, donning double
masks and gloves while wielding
clipboards and hand sanitizer
to collect hundreds of
signatures they need to qualify
for the June 22 primary
ballot.
In order for their name to
appear on voting cards, all candidates
must have at least 270
petitions signed by residents
of their district who are registered
members of their party.
Petitioning offi cially began
on March 2, and they have to
fi le the collection of John Hancocks
with the state’s Board
of Elections between March
22 and March 25, according to
state election law.
Prior to petitioning season,
more than 100 candidates and
their allies called on Gov. Andrew
Cuomo to scrap the requirements
entirely this year,
saying the practice would risk
further spreading the coronavirus
— but state legislators
eventually agreed to lowering
the requirements to just
30 percent while shortening
the timeframe to about three
weeks.
Campaigns usually try to
gather well above the minimum
in case the petitions are
challenged in court by their
opponents for not meeting a
complex set of requirements
to be valid.
Such was the case during
the Council election in Bushwick’s
37th District last year
when an appeals court booted
all but one candidate off the
Democratic primary ballot
over signature issues, effectively
allowing now-Councilmember
Darma Diaz to run
unopposed in the primary
and the general election in the
heavily-blue precinct.
‘An opportunity to
connect with people’
For some, petitioning has
been their fi rst chance to campaign
in-person during the
pandemic, allowing politicos
to speak with everyday voters
who may not be the type to attend
campaign Zoom events.
“Anybody who comes to a
Zoom and asks a question has
already thought about it a lot,
and that’s great, those folks
are intentional and thoughtful,”
said Krebs. “But when
Sign of the times
Council candidates hit Brooklyn’s streets
for COVID-era ballot petitioning
Continued on page 16