Petitioning in Bushwick

It was Sandy Nurse’s second time petitioning amid an ongoing pandemic and her third time total in her efforts to get on the ballot to represent the city’s 37th district, which swaddles parts of Bushwick, Cypress Hills and East New York. Nurse first petitioned to get on the ballot in last year’s special election, had made the ballot and then, following an unsuccessful petition challenge from a Democratic Party leader named Darma Diaz, the election was canceled by the governor last April. The next election was the primary last June, for which petitioning efforts were shut down in the middle of March due to the pandemic’s spread and the lack of information about its transmission. Nurse recalls with surprise petitioning maskless as the city was thrown into confusion and beginning to close its doors. Another candidate on the ballot, an East New York businessman named Misba Abdin, had stopped his petitioning efforts after catching the virus himself.