According to the New York State Board of Elections, the ballot-qualified Independence Party has decided not to nominate any presidential candidate. This is the first time a ballot-qualified party in New York has declined to nominate anyone for President since 1984, when the Right to Life Party had declined to nominate anyone for President. Before that, the last time in New York state was when the Conservative Party nominated no one. However, the only reason the New York Conservative Party ran no one for President in 1968 was that the party wanted to cross-endorse the Republican nominee (Richard Nixon) but the New York Republican Party refused to let the Conservative Party cross-endorse the Republican slate.
At the time the Republican Party was very hostile to the Conservative Party, and wanted to injure the Conservative Party by forcing it to leave its presidential spot on the ballot blank. The New York Independence Party nominated John McCain in 2008. In prior years it nominated various independent or minor party presidential candidates (Ralph Nader in 2004, John Hagelin in 2000, Ross Perot in 1996).