NY S08444

Requires officers, boards, and courts to construe election laws liberally when ruling on objections to designating and nominating petitions to protect candidates' right to run for office and voters' right to choose candidates.

Invalidates objections based on voter or witness addresses if the person and address are reasonably ascertainable by the reviewing officer or board.

Prohibits rejecting petitions for minor errors including pagination mistakes, inaccurate signature counts on cover sheets or witness statements, or village/hamlet names listed instead of city/town names (or borough instead of county in New York City).

Limits objections to inaccurate office descriptions to only those that would reasonably confuse a voter.

Invalidates only voter signatures that are dated earlier than the witness statement date when witness date precedes some signatures, and allows petitions to be rejected only if they fail to meet minimum signature requirements under Election Law Section 6-136.