The Conservative and Working Families parties received more than enough votes to secure their ballot lines in New York through 2024, with both seeing double-digit increases in support.
The number of ballots cast for the Working Families Party more than doubled this Election Day compared to the last midterm and gubernatorial race in 2018.
The party got around 250,000 votes with outstanding absentee ballots to be counted, compared to fewer than 115,000 four years ago, according to unofficial results from the state Board of Elections.
"We smashed our ballot-line goal," said Sharon Cromwell, deputy state director of the New York Working Families Party.
Changes to state election law included in the 2020 budget require minor political parties to get at least 130,000 votes, or 2% of the tallies, whichever is higher, to remain on the ballot another two years.
Cromwell said the WFP line is critical from the top to the bottom of the ticket and made a difference in key races with thin margins.
Gov. Kathy Hochul was cross-endorsed by Democratic and Working Families parties, and Cromwell said the ticket helped her win a tight gubernatorial race against Republican Congressman Lee Zeldin.
"This doesn't just happen," Cromwell added. "We don't take voters for granted."
The Conservative Party received more than 305,000 votes this election — twice the number of registered voters and a more than 20% increase since the last midterm, according to the state Board of Elections.
"This right now, this is our highest vote since 1998," state Conservative Party Chair Gerard Kassar said Thursday.
The party received up to a $350,000 increase in donations this cycle, allowing for better campaign ads, Kassar said.
He also credits the success of the independent ticket with energy behind Zeldin, who ran on the Conservative ticket.
"We endorsed this superb candidate for governor who, although he came up short, did not come up short in the hearts and minds of Conservative Party voters," Kassar added.
Both Cromwell and Kassar say independent political parties give rise to a healthy democracy with more options for voters.
They also agreed the new 2020 benchmarks to secure ballot access impede voter choice, and should be scaled back.
"We should be constantly looking at our election laws and make sure that we are crafting them in a way that bring more people in, give more people choice, right? And not ways that make it harder for people to vote or limit people's options," Cromwell said.
The state Board of Elections is scheduled to certify all election results at a meeting Dec. 15.
Independent political organizations will next file to gain ballot access in 2024.
"For a statewide office the signature requirements are 45,000 valid signatures with at least 500 or 1% of registered voters from each of half of all the congressional districts in the state," according to a statement from the Board of Elections about qualifying rules for third parties.