BP Candidate Richard Luthmann Loses Appeal to Get Back on Ballot

STATEN ISLAND — A state appellate court upheld Wednesday the decision to toss Democratic borough president candidate Richard Luthmann off the ballot.

Luthmann was kicked off the ballot in July, after the Board of Elections ruled he did not have enough signatures on his petition to run, but Luthmann took to the courts the fight the decision.

While the appellate court in Brooklyn upheld the BOE’s original decision this week, Luthmann said he would still try to fight both decisions in the state’s highest court.

“One way or another, the people's advocate will finish what we started on the courthouse steps of New York's High Court next week," Luthmann said in a release.

The bow-tie wearing attorney was originally kicked off the ballot because the BOE found that Luthmann was short by 171 signatures of the required 2,000 needed to run, Luthmann previously told DNAinfo New York.

Luthmann said that many of the signatures were rejected because the BOE did not update voter records, especially after Hurricane Sandy displaced many Staten Islanders.

He said his objection and rejection of the petition were because the Democratic Party was trying to keep him off of the ticket so that their backed nomination, Louis Liedy, could run unopposed.

Both Liedy and the Democratic Party have said that they were not trying to keep Luthmann off the ballot.

"Some people think they're legends in their own mind, and if they want to continue thinking that, that's their own right," Kevin Elkins, executive director of the Staten Island Democratic Party, told DNAinfo New York.

Luthmann’s next hearing is scheduled for Aug. 21 at the New York State Court of Appeals.