Mino Lora, candidate for City Council in the 11th District in The Bronx, and previously profiled by the Norwood News, issued a statement on Thursday, Jan. 7, confirming that she has contracted the coronavirus. “I tested positive for COVID-19, and am quarantining with my husband and our two children,” she said. “My symptoms are mild so far.”

As reported by Norwood News, on Monday, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio set the date for the Special Election for District 11 and District 15 as March 23, and encouraged “all the folks out there in those two districts who want to serve your communities, [to] get out there and get petitioning because we have special elections called for March 23rd.”

The mayor did not address previous calls from a number of City Council candidates (Lora was not initially among them) who had asked for the 450-minimum signature requirement to be waived in order for candidates to qualify to get on the ballot. The reason for doing so was to avoid mass person-to-person contact between candidates, their staffers and the public, amid high COVID-19 rates across the city.

In the meantime, District 11 candidates, Abigail Martin and Marcos Sierra have even pulled out  of the special election, citing health risk concerns.

Lora said she hadn’t gathered signatures herself yet, and said she didn’t plan to. “I am grateful to my campaign team who are doing so,” she said. “Candidates and their teams still being required to petition during a pandemic is bad public health policy, especially with the more rapidly spreading virus strain.”

She added, “I support Councilman Ben Kallos’ legislation to suspend petitioning, instead qualifying candidates by our ability to meet NYC Matching Fund Program thresholds – which I have met. As a matter of urgency, the Governor should issue an executive order eliminating petitioning or at least reducing the number of signatures required.”

Norwood News has, again, contacted the mayor’s office for comment on the issue. We did not receive an immediate response.

On Thursday, Jan. 7, New York State Gov. Andrew Cuomo appeared to respond to the calls, announcing the extension of a prior executive order issued in March which reduced the number of signatures needed to get on the ballot from 450 to 315. When asked for his reaction to the news, Sierra said, “I am very pleased that the governor was able to honor the request made of the candidates in the 11th Council District regarding the reduction of required signatures for the special election.”

Not all candidates in the race had initially called for the changes to the signature process. Dan Padernacht, Abigail Martin, Carlton Berkley and Sierra were first to share their opinion. Jessica Haller later voiced her support on social media. On the morning of Thursday, Jan. 7, Eric Dinowitz issued a press release in which he proposed a number of measures aimed at protecting voters during the ongoing pandemic but they did not include addressing the minimum signature requirement. Lora later voiced her views at the same time as announcing her illness.

In a later press release on Jan. 7, at 8.42 p.m., Dinowitz also urged the governor to lower the petitioning threshold, saying, “I want to echo prior calls I have made to increase access to the ballot and to voting in general.” He added, “Governor Cuomo continues to implore New Yorkers to do all they can to stop the spread of this virus, and this caution must extend to our elections. I call on the Governor to reduce the number of signatures for candidates needed to get on the ballot – not just now, but in the primary election as well.”

Dinowitz went on to call on all candidates in the special election to join him in pledging “to not engage in any petition challenges.” He added, “This campaign for City Council should be focused on how we are going to recover from this pandemic and give a voice to the Northwest Bronx. My focus will remain on the health and wellbeing of the constituents I am running to represent.”

For his part, Sierra added, in response to the governor’s announcement, “I look forward to him extending the same protections for the June primary election.” Meanwhile, Padernacht said, “We appreciate that Governor Cuomo acted on our urgent appeal on December 29th to reduce the signature requirement for ballot access in our March 23rd Special Election for City Council.”

He added, “While we hoped for a greater reduction, this is a step in the right direction. I am grateful to Carlton Berkley, Abigail Martin and Marcos Sierra for working with me to bring attention to this matter.” Norwood News reached out to Berkley, Haller, Martin and Lora for comment also. Martin said, “Nobody should be put at risk for participating in the democratic process, yet this is what is happening every time someone agrees to sign a candidate’s petition. As petitioning continues, and COVID numbers continue to rise, there is no way of knowing how many candidates or campaign volunteers are spreading the disease.”

She added, “A reduction in the number of required signatures is not enough. There are safer ways to determine how candidates could qualify to appear on the ballot, the current system is antiquated and should be ended. Because of the petitioning process, it is likely that over a million New Yorkers from every neighborhood in the City will come into close contact with a campaign worker this campaign season. This is a preventable disaster waiting to happen.”

Haller said her team were happy that the governor decided to lower the threshold. “It’s important that we all focus on keeping people safe,” she said. “Our campaign has already submitted enough signatures to appear on the ballot, and we look forward to continuing to build our grassroots campaign in the coming weeks.”

Meanwhile, Lora said, “Candidates and our teams still being required to petition during a pandemic, especially with the more rapidly spreading virus strain, is bad public health policy.” She added, “The governor reduced the number of signatures needed for the special election after most of us have already met the original threshold. Temporarily ending petitioning would’ve been safer, and I hope he’ll do so ahead of February when petitioning is expected to begin for the primary election in June.”

Lora also reiterated her earlier support of Kallos’ proposed legislation to suspend petitioning, and instead have candidates qualify for the ballot based on their ability to meet the CFB’s matching funds program thresholds. We did not receive an immediate response from Berkley.

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Welcome to the Norwood News, a bi-weekly community newspaper that primarily serves the northwest Bronx communities of Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham and University Heights. Through our Breaking Bronx blog, we focus on news and information for those neighborhoods, but aim to cover as much Bronx-related news as possible. Founded in 1988 by Mosholu Preservation Corporation, a not-for-profit affiliate of Montefiore Medical Center, the Norwood News began as a monthly and grew to a bi-weekly in 1994. In September 2003 the paper expanded to cover University Heights and now covers all the neighborhoods of Community District 7. The Norwood News exists to foster communication among citizens and organizations and to be a tool for neighborhood development efforts. The Norwood News runs the Bronx Youth Journalism Heard, a journalism training program for Bronx high school students. As you navigate this website, please let us know if you discover any glitches or if you have any suggestions. We’d love to hear from you. You can send e-mails to norwoodnews@norwoodnews.org or call us anytime (718) 324-4998.