The First Department determined the petitioners’ article 16 proceedings were timely and the designating petitions were not facially defective:
Petitioners’ article 16 special proceedings should be deemed timely because petitioners did not receive notice that their designating petitions contained defects within the 14-day statutory period prescribed by Election Law § 16-102(2) and they acted with due diligence by promptly commencing the article 16 proceeding after that period ended … .
Petitioners’ designating petitions were not facially defective because they substantially complied with the Election Law … . Here, the designating petitions merely omitted the city, state and/or zip codes of the candidates’ residences. Where a petition only contains errors regarding an incorrect or incomplete address, including where the name of the city is omitted, a petitioner has substantially complied with the Election Law and their designating petitions should not be invalidated as defective … . Matter of Merber v Board of Elections in the City of N.Y., 2019 NY Slip Op 04231, First Dept 5-29-19