A New York State appeals court ruled on Wednesday that Zephyr Teachout, a law professor who is running against Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo in the Democratic primary, can remain on the Sept. 9 ballot. Mr. Cuomo’s campaign, which had sought to disqualify her, said it would not appeal. The campaign had questioned whether Ms. Teachout, who teaches at Fordham Law School, met the state’s five-year residency requirement to be governor, arguing that in recent years, she had intended for Vermont, where she grew up, to be her legal residence. It cited a variety of records in which Ms. Teachout used a Vermont address. But a State Supreme Court justice rebuffed the challenge last week. Mr. Cuomo’s campaign appealed that ruling, and the appeal was argued in Brooklyn on Tuesday.
In its two-page decision upholding the ruling, a four-judge panel of the Appellate Division’s Second Department found that although Ms. Teachout had lived in multiple residences in New York City and had maintained “close connections” to Vermont in the past five years, “that is nothing more than an ambiguity in the residency calculus.”
The court ruled that Mr. Cuomo’s campaign faced the burden of establishing “by clear and convincing evidence” that Ms. Teachout did not meet the residency requirement, and that the lower court’s decision rejecting the challenge was “warranted by the facts.”
Full Article: Teachout Can Stay on Ballot Against Cuomo, Appeals Court Says – NYTimes.com.