QUORUM REQUIREMENT NOT MET, CERTIFICATES OF NOMINATION INVALID (THIRD DEPT).

The Third Department determined the certificates of nomination authorized by the Independence Party of Westchester County were invalid because the quorum requirement was not met:

Turning to the merits, Election Law § 6-114 provides that “[p]arty nominations for an office to be filled at a special election shall be made in the manner prescribed by the rules of the party.” Petitioners alleged several violations of the rules of the County Independence Party, some of which are compelling. Our discussion focuses, however, upon rules defining the Executive Committee, following an initial meeting, as having seven members … and needing “four members present . . . in person or by proxy” to form a quorum … .

The affidavit of … the secretary of the County Independence Party … reflected that the nomination process fatally deviated from those rules. Vazquez averred that she and two other individuals attended the meeting … . …[F]our members were needed for a quorum. The quorum requirement in the rules leaves no room for interpretation and, contrary to respondents’ contention, the fact that some seats on the Executive Committee were unfilled does not affect the requirement’s applicability … . Accordingly, “a duly constituted quorum of the [E]xecutive [C]ommittee was not present when [respondent] was nominated,” and those committee members present had no authority to designate [respondent] as the County Independence Party nominee … . Matter of Loftus-Doran v Mayer, 2018 NY Slip Op 02284, Third Dept 3-30-18

ELECTION LAW (QUORUM REQUIREMENT NOT MET, CERTIFICATES OF NOMINATION INVALID (THIRD DEPT))/QUORUM (ELECTION LAW, QUORUM REQUIREMENT NOT MET, CERTIFICATES OF NOMINATION INVALID (THIRD DEPT))/CERTIFICATES OF NOMINATION  (ELECTION LAW, QUORUM REQUIREMENT NOT MET, CERTIFICATES OF NOMINATION INVALID (THIRD DEPT))