CASE STUDIES IN EMERGENCY ELECTION LITIGATION

Federal Judicial Center 10/4/2023 1

Unsuccessful Effort to Open a Primary Election 

Because of Allegedly Purged Party Registrations 

Campanello v. New York State Board of Elections (Joanna 

Seybert and Sandra J. Feuerstein, E.D.N.Y. 2:16-cv-1892) 

Filed on the day before a presidential primary election, a federal 

complaint sought to open the parties’ primary elections to voters of 

all parties as a remedy for allegedly improper purging of party registrations. The district judge on miscellaneous duty denied immediate 

relief. Following their filing of an amended complaint after the election, the plaintiffs declined to respond to a motion to dismiss the 

case, and so the assigned judge dismissed the case. 

Subject: Nullifying registrations. Topics: Registration 

procedures; matters for state courts; primary election; National 

Voter Registration Act; case assignment; class action; ballot 

segregation; provisional ballots. 

Fourteen voters filed a federal class-action complaint in the Eastern District of 

New York’s Long Island courthouse on April 18, 2016, against the state board 

of elections and its officers, alleging that an improper voter registration purge 

would wrongfully disfranchise voters in the presidential primary election 

scheduled for the following day.1 With their complaint, at approximately five 

minutes before 5:00 p.m., the plaintiffs filed a proposed order to show cause 

why relief should not be granted, including an injunction opening the primary 

elections to voters of all parties.2

The court assigned the case to Judge Sandra J. Feuerstein, who was unavailable to hear it immediately.3

 Judge Joanna Seybert was on miscellaneous 

duty, and she conducted a hearing on the following afternoon.4 She denied the 

plaintiffs immediate relief,5

 observing that the state courts had procedures for 

restoring voter registrations.6 “I mean there is a process. There are judges that 

sit in New York Supreme to issue these orders and people are advised to go to 

the judges . . . .”7 Judge Seybert also observed that relief could not be directed 

against local election officials because they were neither named nor served.8

1. Complaint, Campanello v. N.Y. State Bd. of Elections, No. 2:16-cv-1892 (E.D.N.Y. Apr. 

18, 2016), D.E. 1. 

2. Proposed Order to Show Cause, id. (Apr. 18, 2016), D.E. 2; Transcript at 2, id. (Apr. 19, 

2016, filed June 7, 2016), D.E. 17-3. 

3. Transcript, supra note 2, at 2. 

Judge Feuerstein died on April 9, 2021. Federal Judicial Center Biographical Directory of 

Article III Federal Judges, www.fjc.gov/history/judges. 

4. Transcript, supra note 2, at 2; Minutes, Campanello, No. 2:16-cv-1892 (E.D.N.Y. Apr. 

19, 2016), D.E. 7; see Transcript, supra note 2, at 2–3 (noting the court’s efforts to contact the 

plaintiffs for an earlier hearing). 

5. Minutes, supra note 4; Transcript, supra note 2, at 14. 

6. Transcript, supra note 2, at 4. 

7. Id. at 15. 

8. Id.
Unsuccessful Effort to Open a Primary Election 

Because of Allegedly Purged Party Registrations 

2 Federal Judicial Center 10/4/2023 

An April 27 amended complaint included local election officials as defendants.9

 The plaintiffs did not respond, however, to a motion to dismiss the 

case,10 and Judge Feuerstein dismissed the action at a June 21 conference with 

both sides represented.11

9. Amended Complaint, Campanello, No. 2:16-cv-1892 (E.D.N.Y. Apr. 27, 2016), D.E. 11. 

10. Letter, id. (June 7, 2016), D.E. 17. 

11. Minutes, id. (June 21, 2016), D.E. 18.