The first instance was 1936. The new American Labor Party, backed by President Roosevelt, could not get on the ballot unless the old Socialist Labor Party were kept off, since it was illegal for two parties to use the same word in their names. A convenient technical flaw was discovered in the Socialist Labor Party petition, and it was kept off the ballot that year, the first time since 1888 that it had not appeared on the New York ballot. Now it is being used in Democratic primary elections. In 1980 Jerry Brown was knocked off the Democratic presidential primary, and in 1985 and 1986 hyper-technical objections have been used to keep many prominent Democratic candidates off the ballot.
Ballots are to permit the voters to vote for the candidates of their choice.
It isn't doing its job. The purpose of ballots is to facilitate the wishes of voters, NOT to control whom they vote for. Defenders of the restrictions say that candidates who lack substantial support must be kept off the ballot. Denying ballot access is permissible only if and to the extent that it is necessary as a means to further other legitimate state interests, including avoidance of the voter confusion that may result from the presence on the ballot of too many frivolous candidates. Yes, some requirements are needed to keep the ballots from being clogged with too many candidates, but the very slightest ballot access barriers are sufficient for this purpose.