Gov. signs bill allowing candidates to use chosen names in bids for office
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Queens candidates Mary Jobaida and Moumita Ahmed were briefly kicked off the ballot in 2020 because their personal and professional names didn’t match their legal names. Gov. Kathy Hochul signed a bill into law Friday to ensure something like that doesn’t happen again. Photos courtesy of Jobaida and Ahmed
By Jacob Kaye
After collecting over a thousand petition signatures in the dead of winter and in the middle of a deadly pandemic, Moumita Ahmed faced a gut-wrenching reality.
The New York City Board of Elections kicked her off the ballot in her 2020 race for district leader because her personal and professional first name, which she had used on all of her BOE paperwork, didn’t match her legal name. To add insult to injury, the BOE booted Ahmed and another Muslim woman from the ballot on the first day of Ramadan.
Though a judge would soon rule in Ahmed’s favor, reinstating her and then-Assembly candidate Mary Jobaida back onto the ballot, neither Ahmed, Jobaida or any other candidate running for office will ever again face the prospect of getting kicked off the ballot because of their name.
On Friday, Governor Kathy Hochul signed a bill into law that expands the BOE’s definition of the word “name,” and would allow for candidates to use alternate, familiar or anglicized names in their bids for office.
“New York’s greatest strength is its diversity and it is imperative that our state’s government reflects the people it serves,” Hochul said in a statement. “This bill is a step in the right direction to removing the institutional barriers that limit political participation from any community.”
The bill, introduced in the State Senate by Queens Sen. John Liu and in the Assembly by Queens Assemblymember Jeffrion Aubry, aims to make elected positions more accessible to immigrants and people who have changed their name in an effort to assimilate.
Candidates will now be allowed to run under the name that is commonly used to identify that person, as long as its use is not intended to mislead voters.
“In recent years, the Board of Elections tried to kick several immigrant women off the ballot for using the names they are widely known by personally and professionally, rather than their given names,” Liu said. “This legislation changes that undemocratic practice once and for all, and helps candidates of color and immigrant candidates have equal access to the ballot as men with nicknames like ‘Marty,’ ‘Tony,’ or ‘Bill.’”
Election attorney Ali Najmi, who represented both Ahmed and Jobaida in their successful fight to get back on the ballot, said the new law “codifies what New York's Courts have consistently held to be acceptable when it comes to running with an alternative name.”
“This new statute will avoid unnecessary future litigation and provide a clear message to election administrators throughout the state,” he added.
In May 2020, Queens Judge Leonard Livote ruled in Amed and Jobaida’s favor, saying that Queens’ diverse population – the borough is home to the largest South Asian population in the state – demanded an “expansive view” of name customs.
“In a county as diverse as Queens, with many exotic and unfamiliar names, an expansive view must be taken of what is familiar or diminutive,” Livote said in his decision.
It wasn’t an effort to fit in for Jobaida that got her kicked off the ballot – it was simply Bangladeshi naming customs.
“Almost everyone born in Bangladesh has a nickname,” Jobaida told the Eagle. “In my case, my name is Mary, it’s not like I adopted this name, came to America and wanted an anglicized name – my mother named me Mary.”
Not only did she feel she had a right to use the name she’s been known by her entire life when running for office, Jobaida also felt like she didn’t have a choice.
“Most of the people have no idea who Meherunnisa is, but they know who Mary is,” she said. “This kind of barrier keeps people of color, people of different backgrounds and cultures from serving their community.”
For both Jobaida and Ahmed, the legal fight to get their names reinstated took away valuable time and resources that could have been better spent on their respective campaigns.
“That was time away from talking to voters,” Ahmed told the Eagle. “It was a stress and it was another layer of that barrier that we face because of this identity crisis that we often have to confront, because we're immigrants trying to assimilate.”
Even more important to Ahmed is the hope that the law will prevent other candidates, especially Muslim and South Asian women, from having to face what is already an ever present insecurity in their bids for office.
“Oftentimes, we change our name, and the reason stems from a desire to avoid discrimination and to fit in,” she said. “That rejection of my ballot based on my name was the very thing that I’m insecure about and that I’ve been insecure about for a long time, feeling like people don’t see me for who I am.”
Ahmed said that the incident brought up past trauma surrounding her name that she dealt with her entire life.
“It definitely showed that there are holes, or there are blind sides within our democracy that make it harder for immigrants to do something like run for office,” she said.
However, her faith in democracy was restored, she said, when Livote ordered the BOE to put her name back on the ballot. It was restored further Friday when Hochul signed the bill into law.
“It was long overdue, but really happy to get that recognition, because these are immigrant struggles that aren't often talked about,” Ahmed said. “Names and identity are such an important factor in the immigrant experience. For her to recognize that and expand our rights to democracy, to run for office, to participate, is such a refreshing welcome into American life and into our democracy.”
