By June Mercer
The printed ballot for governor of New York has two lines. Most voters in this election will not need to know there is anything beyond them. But there is: two men running as declared write-in candidates and one man who tried to get on the ballot and was turned away, short by a margin large enough to raise questions about what the state's ballot-access rules actually require. This piece is about those three candidacies, what produced them, and what any voter who wants to act on them needs to know.
The ballot has two names on it
For governor, the printed ballot offers Kathy Hochul and Adrienne Adams on the Democratic and Working Families lines, and Bruce Blakeman and Todd Hood on the Republican, Conservative, and Vote Affordable lines. That is the full printed ballot. Beyond those two tickets, the race consists of two declared write-in candidates, Jean Anglade (independent) and Jonathan Makeley (Prohibition Party), and one disqualified candidacy, Larry Sharpe (Coalition).
None of those three names will appear on the printed ballot in any county. A voter who wants to cast a ballot for any of them must use the write-in option.
The law that decided that
The 2026 governor's race traces directly to a 2020 change in state law. Under the new rules, a party seeking recognized-party status in New York must receive the greater of 130,000 votes or 2 percent of the vote in gubernatorial and presidential elections. The old threshold was 50,000 votes. The rules for independent nominating petitions moved in the same direction: a statewide independent candidate must now gather 45,000 valid signatures, up from 15,000.
The practical effect has been a consolidation of recognized parties. Since the change, only the Working Families Party and the Conservative Party have maintained recognized-party status alongside the Democrats and Republicans. Every other formation seeking a statewide line must either compete on one of those four lines or gather 45,000 signatures to run independently. For most third-party and independent candidacies, 45,000 signatures is a difficult number. For one candidacy this year, it proved insurmountable.
Larry Sharpe: 1,615 signatures against 45,000
Larry Sharpe is not on the ballot. He will not be. His candidacy is included here because the reason it ended illustrates exactly how the signature threshold works in practice.
Sharpe was the Libertarian Party's 2018 nominee for governor of New York, and he ran a visible campaign that year, receiving 95,033 votes. In 2026, he sought the ballot again, this time through an independent nominating petition under the "Coalition" party name, with Shannon Joy Bones as his lieutenant governor running mate. He raised $121,603.53 and spent $114,470.46 on the effort, according to Transparency USA.
The State Board of Elections ruled the petition invalid in June 2026. The Board found that it contained no more than 1,615 possible signatures against the 45,000 required for a statewide independent candidate. That ratio, 1,615 out of 45,000, is not a close call or a technical disqualification on procedural grounds. The petition, as submitted, fell short by more than 43,000 signatures. Sharpe's status at Transparency USA is listed as "Disqualified."
To put the 45,000 number in fuller context: it is three times the old independent-petition threshold, which was 15,000 signatures. It is also the floor, not a competitive target. A candidacy that reached 44,999 would still be rejected. The 2020 law raised the cost of entry for statewide independent candidates enough that Sharpe's effort, which raised more than $120,000 and produced a named running mate, still came in at roughly 3.6 percent of what the state required.
The NOTA protest
After the ruling, the Libertarian Party of New York launched a "Vote NOTA" campaign. NOTA stands for None of the Above. The campaign is explicitly a protest aimed at the ballot-access rules rather than an attempt to elect Sharpe or any alternative candidate.
The State Board of Elections separately declined to recognize a petition that literally named "None of the Above" as a candidate, because the petition listed no named candidates. That decision closed off one avenue; the NOTA campaign has continued as an informal protest effort rather than a formal candidacy.
This piece does not endorse or oppose the NOTA campaign. It is reported here because some voters searching for information about the governor's race will encounter it, and because it is a direct product of the same ballot-access law described above.
Jonathan Makeley: the Prohibition candidate
Jonathan Makeley is a historian from Angelica, in Western New York. He holds a bachelor's degree in history from Alfred University (2017) and two graduate degrees from the University at Buffalo (2019 and 2021). He serves as state chairman of the Prohibition Party of New York, which he helped re-establish in 2017, and as secretary of the national Prohibition Party.
He announced his write-in candidacy on May 30, 2026. He is running as a write-in rather than appearing on the printed ballot because of the 2020 ballot-access law: the thresholds make a Prohibition Party line impractical under current state rules. In his announcement, Makeley said: "New Yorkers deserve to have a positive alternative to the failed approaches of the major parties."
His platform, as described by his campaign and covered in Ballotpedia's candidate survey, includes treating alcohol, tobacco, and drugs as public-health problems; improving public education; strengthening ethics laws; expanding ballot access for third parties; and protecting infrastructure and the environment. One clarification worth making plainly: the modern Prohibition Party does not seek a total ban on alcohol. It advocates for heavy regulation. Transparency USA shows no contributions or expenditures reported for Makeley's candidacy.
Jean Anglade: the candidate with no paper trail
Jean Anglade (listed in some coverage as Jean H. Anglade) is an independent write-in candidate for governor. He is not affiliated with any ballot-recognized party, and he should not be described as a member of an "Independent Party." There is no such party on the 2026 ballot. At least one local outlet used that label; it is not accurate.
What is known about Anglade's campaign, from its LinkedIn presence as summarized by The Interfaith Intrepid, a low-authority source, amounts to this: his campaign describes itself as focused on government accountability and ethics, affordability, public safety, housing supply, public education and vocational training, small-business regulation, and infrastructure. Those themes come from his campaign's own self-presentation, not from independent reporting; they should be read as campaign self-description.
The desk found no independent biographical reporting on Anglade in any reliable outlet: no occupation, no hometown, no record of prior runs. The Interfaith Intrepid noted that his published platform is thinner and less detailed than those of the other candidates. That absence of a public record is the factual situation. This article does not fill that gap with invented detail, because none exists to work from. Transparency USA shows no contributions or expenditures reported for his candidacy.
What a write-in vote actually does
A write-in vote is cast by filling in the write-in bubble or box on the ballot and writing the candidate's name in the space provided. Both Anglade and Makeley hold declared write-in candidate status, which matters for what happens to those votes after Election Day.
New York does not canvass, or count officially, write-in votes for a candidate unless that candidate holds declared write-in status before the election. A voter who writes in a name for which no declaration was filed will have that vote set aside as an informal vote; it will not be tallied for the named person. Because both Anglade and Makeley have declared, votes cast for them by name will be canvassed and reported in the official results.
A write-in vote for any candidate does not, under state law, carry special weight in any other race or create any legal effect beyond the gubernatorial contest itself. It is a vote for governor, recorded and canvassed by the standard rules that apply to that office.
Voter information
Election Day is Tuesday, November 3, 2026. Polls are open from 6 AM to 9 PM. Early voting runs from Saturday, October 24, through Sunday, November 1, 2026.
The voter registration deadline is Saturday, October 24, 2026. October 24 is also Golden Day: a voter who is not yet registered can register and vote on that single day only. After October 24, registration is closed for this election.
The desk's full voting guide for Dutchess County, including polling locations, early voting sites, and absentee ballot information, is available at Voting in Dutchess County: the October 24 deadline and everything after.
Election 2026 is an ongoing series. Records are reported as they exist; claims are labeled as claims.
