Fordham Law Adjunct Professor Jerry H. Goldfeder, director of Fordham Law School’s Voting Rights and Democracy Project, discusses with The New York Times the impact of having Jim Walden’s name on the New York City mayoral ballot even though he dropped out of the race.
Legal experts said, though, that even if a candidate announced his withdrawal from the race, some of his supporters would be likely to vote for him anyway as long as his name remained on the ballot.
“Candidates whose names are on the ballot after they have dropped out usually get some votes,” said Jerry Goldfeder, an election law expert. But, he added, “I can’t think of an example when it’s made any difference whatsoever.”
Mr. Goldfeder noted that in 2002, Mr. Cuomo withdrew from the Democratic primary for governor of New York a week before the election. His name stayed on the ballot, and he received about 15 percent of the vote. And in this year’s Democratic mayoral primary, Jessica Ramos, a state senator, effectively dropped out by announcing she would endorse Mr. Cuomo, but remained on the ballot. She received 0.4 percent of the vote.
Read “He Dropped Out of the Mayor’s Race. His Name Is Still on the Ballot.” in The New York Times.
A version of this article also appears in print on Sept. 13, 2025, Section A, Page 16 of the New York edition with the headline: He Quit the Mayor’s Race, But He’s Still on the Ballot.