FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM APRIL 8, 2021 • THE QUEENS COURIER 17
some Queens City Council campaigns to COVID-19
that allowed the voter to see me
and allowed me to see the voter
and have a direct conversation.”
And it worked. Bagga collected
the required 270 signatures,
plus a 1,000-signature cushion,
should any be deemed invalid.
He even felt that his workaround
still allowed him to make connections
with voters, including
one in particular who happened
to disagree with his platform.
“He was just a joy to speak
with,” Bagga said. “And, you
know, it was both very diff erent,
and yet somehow incredibly fi tting
for the time that we’re in for
us to be able to have a conversation
like that.”
But the barriers stopping candidates
and campaigns from
connecting with voters have
been plentiful, according to Evie
Hantzopoulos, a candidate in
City Council District 22.
Hantzopoulos is hosting more
virtual events to facilitate connection,
but she said many
people are “Zoomed-out.” She
added they still haven’t done
any door knocking or canvassing
– strategies used to connect
with voters pre-COVID – as she
thinks some people “might be
uncomfortable” given the ongoing
pandemic.
The vast majority of campaigns
in Queens told QNS
that staff, volunteers and candidates
remained healthy during
the in-person signature
collection. Still, despite the
precautions taken by nearly
every campaign, none felt
totally safe and many made
alterations to the process to
ensure fewer people could
potentially be exposed.
Steven Raga, who is running
for City Council in District 26,
said many of their volunteers
were fully vaccinated during
the petitioning process, and for
the time they weren’t, they wore
masks, gloves, face shields and
brandished hand sanitizers and
multiple pens for single use.
Eugene Noh, campaign manager
for Julie Won, who’s also
running for City Council in
District 26, said they took similar
precautions. Th ey had about
20 volunteers and were able to
collect more than 2,000 signatures
within two weeks of the
process.
“On March 17, we decided
to stop gathering signatures
to eliminate the risk of catching
or spreading COVID-19,”
Noh said.
Mike Dillon, campaign manager
for Badrun Khan, who’s
also running for City Council
in District 26, said they focused
on petitioning in fi xed locations
and used tables to reinforce
social distancing, which
also allowed them to stock safety
supplies they bought in bulk.
Nicholas Velkov, a City
Council candidate in District 22,
said his fi rst safety measure was
to collect signatures on his own.
“I didn’t ask any volunteers to
go out for me. Roughly 80 percent
of my signatures were collected
by me,” Velkov said.
The same was true for
Catherina Gioino, also running
in District 22, and Kenichi
Wilson, who’s running in
District 32.
“My friends actually volunteered
and I turned them down,”
Gioino said. “So I got 500-ish
signatures myself with a vaccinated
friend.”
Tiff any Cabán, who is running
for City Council in District 22,
stated that her campaign “agonized”
over the amount of signatures
they’d need to collect in
order to make it onto the ballot
successfully while keeping people
safe.
Cabán, who announced they
met their goal a week aft er petitioning
began, said the governor’s
decision to allow petitioning
was “yet another example of
his failed leadership.”
“He put us in an impossible
position where participating in
democracy meant putting your
health on the line,” Cabán said.
But despite taking precautions,
as many have learned this
past year, the risk of COVID-19
couldn’t be eliminated entirely.
“I was very confi dent in my
own practices, in terms of following
strict protocols around
COVID. It just so happens
that the person who did contract
COVID, that I was around,
also was very strict about following
protocols,” Bagga said.
“And that, actually, in some ways
gave me a little pause, because I
thought, ‘Well, if you know this
person is so meticulous and I’ve
been meticulous, and they could
still contract it, what does that
mean for me?’”
Hantzopoulos said neither she
nor her staff or volunteers contracted
COVID-19 while petitioning.
Th ey were able to meet
their goal in less than a week,
utilizing an appointment system,
where voters could set up
a time to sign the candidate’s
petition.
Ultimately, for Hantzopoulos
— who’s led various COVID
relief eff orts since the height of
the pandemic — petitioning was
an unnecessary risk.
“I have been on the ground
doing COVID relief for the
past year, that’s where we
should be focusing our eff orts,”
Hantzopoulos said. “If you’re
going to put yourself at risk, it
should be for something like
that. Th ere’s other ways to get
people on the ballot.”
Additional reporting by
Clarissa Sosin and Bill Parry.
Courtesy of Julie Won’s campaign
Julie Won, candidate for City Council in District 26, out petitioning with volunteers.
Courtesy of Amit Bagga’s campaign
Amit Bagga, candidate for City Council in District 26, and supporter Virginia
Polik connecting Bagga with voters via FaceTime.
/WWW.QNS.COM
