Delegates to the judicial convention in NYC are party members whom voters elect during the June primary for one specific purpose: to attend a post-primary nominating convention and cast the party’s nomination for State Supreme Court justices in their borough. If you saw a long list of unfamiliar names on your primary ballot under a “Delegate to Judicial Convention” heading, those are the people running to represent your assembly district at that convention. You’re not voting for a judge directly. You’re voting for the people who will pick the judge.1New York State Senate. New York Election Law ELN 6-124 – Conventions; Judicial
What a Judicial Delegate Actually Does
A judicial delegate has exactly one job. Show up at the party’s judicial nominating convention after the primary and vote on which candidates get the party’s nomination for State Supreme Court in the general election. That’s it. Delegates aren’t policymakers, they don’t serve a term of office, and they don’t handle anything else on the ballot.1New York State Senate. New York Election Law ELN 6-124 – Conventions; Judicial
One thing worth clearing up: the New York State Supreme Court is not the state’s highest court despite the name. It’s the general jurisdiction trial court that hears the most serious civil and criminal cases.2The Fund For Modern Courts. Public Policy Relating to Judicial Selection So when delegates nominate a “Supreme Court justice,” they’re picking a trial judge who will sit in your borough’s courthouse.
The convention system only applies to this one court. Most other judgeships in New York are filled through direct primaries, where you vote for the judicial candidate yourself. Supreme Court nominations are routed through delegates instead.
Which Convention Your Delegate Attends
New York City covers five judicial districts, one per borough:3NYCourts.gov. Appellate Divisions, Judicial Departments Map
- 1st Judicial District — Manhattan (New York County)
- 2nd Judicial District — Brooklyn (Kings County)
- 11th Judicial District — Queens (Queens County)
- 12th Judicial District — The Bronx (Bronx County)
- 13th Judicial District — Staten Island (Richmond County)
Each district holds its own convention. Delegates elected in Brooklyn assembly districts attend only the Brooklyn convention; they play no role in Manhattan’s or Queens’s. So the delegate names on your ballot are candidates for your borough’s convention specifically.
Who Can Run for Delegate
The eligibility bar is deliberately low. To run as a judicial delegate you need to be a registered New York voter, enrolled in the party whose convention you want to attend, and living in the assembly district where you’re running. No law degree or legal background is required. Any enrolled party member who meets those basics can run.
Federal employees should be careful here. If you’re a “further restricted” employee under the Hatch Act, you’re barred from taking an active part in partisan political management, and a partisan delegate slot likely qualifies. Check with your agency ethics office before filing.4U.S. Office of Special Counsel. Hatch Act FAQs
How Many Delegates Come From Each District
Each party sets its own delegate count per assembly district, but the allocation has to be roughly proportional to the votes that party’s gubernatorial candidate received in that district in the last election. Assembly districts where the party turned out strongly get more delegate seats. The number of alternates from a district can’t exceed the number of delegates from the same district.1New York State Senate. New York Election Law ELN 6-124 – Conventions; Judicial
Getting on the Primary Ballot
To appear on the primary ballot as a delegate candidate, you circulate a designating petition and collect signatures from enrolled party members in your assembly district. The threshold matches what state assembly candidates face: 5% of enrolled party members in the district, capped at 500 signatures.5New York State Board of Elections. New York State 2025 Election Law In most NYC assembly districts, the 500 cap kicks in well before 5% would.
Every petition sheet has to include the candidate’s name, home address, and the office sought, and each signature must be witnessed with a completed statement at the bottom of the page. If a voter signs petitions for more delegate candidates than there are seats to fill and the signatures share a date, none of them count.6New York State Senate. New York Election Law ELN 6-134 – Designating Petition; Rules Rival slates routinely challenge each other’s petitions, so experienced candidates collect well above the minimum. Official petition forms are available from the Board of Elections.7New York State Board of Elections. Petition Information
How the Convention Picks Judges
After the June primary elects delegates, each party holds its judicial nominating convention, generally in September before the November general election. The delegates from every assembly district in that judicial district gather together.
No business starts until a majority of the delegates are present, counting any alternates filling in for absent delegates. The party committee chair (or a designee) calls the meeting to order for the sole purpose of holding a roll call to elect a temporary chairman, who then runs the rest of the proceedings.8New York State Senate. New York Election Law ELN 6-126 – Conventions; Rules for Holding
Uncontested nominations can be taken by voice vote. When two or more candidates compete for the same seat, delegates cast a formal roll call: each stands, states their name, and announces their vote. The chair of any assembly district’s delegation can announce that delegation’s vote as a block unless a delegate from the district objects.8New York State Senate. New York Election Law ELN 6-126 – Conventions; Rules for Holding
The practical reality: contested roll calls are rare. Delegates almost always run as part of party-organized slates, and by the time the convention gavels in, the nominations are effectively decided. Independent candidates can and do run for delegate, but dislodging an organized slate takes serious grassroots work in each assembly district.
What You See on the November Ballot
Once the convention nominates its candidates, those names go on the November ballot as the party’s Supreme Court nominees. New York allows fusion voting, so a single candidate can accept nominations from more than one party and appear on multiple ballot lines. Votes across all the lines are added together to determine the winner.
New York also has no “sore loser” rule for judicial nominations. A candidate who loses one party’s convention can still turn up on the general election ballot as another party’s nominee. Combined with fusion, this often produces general elections where the same names appear on nearly every party line and there’s little real choice by November. The competition, when it exists, tends to happen at the delegate and convention stage. That’s what makes the delegate vote in the June primary the meaningful entry point for voters who want any input on who becomes a Supreme Court justice in their borough.
Why New York Uses This System
New York moved Supreme Court nominations from direct primaries to conventions in 1921 and has kept the setup ever since. Critics say it hands nominations to party leaders because most voters have no way of knowing who the delegate candidates on their ballot are, and slate outcomes are largely set before conventions meet. A Brooklyn judge, Margarita Lopez Torres, took that argument to the U.S. Supreme Court, contending the process violated candidates’ First Amendment rights by making a nomination effectively unattainable without party leadership backing.9Justia US Supreme Court. New York State Bd. of Elections v. Lopez Torres, 552 U.S. 196 (2008)
The Court disagreed unanimously in 2008. It acknowledged that party organizations largely control outcomes but held that the Constitution doesn’t guarantee any candidate a fair shot at a party’s nomination, only that the state not block candidates from running. The convention system stands unless the New York Legislature changes it.10The Fund For Modern Courts. NYS Board of Elections v. Lopez Torres Reform proposals surface from time to time; none has passed. Until one does, the delegate race on your June primary ballot is where the real Supreme Court choice happens.