Qualified New York political parties

In the 1994 election, the Democratic Party received the most votes, and so qualified to be first on the ballot for the next four years, even though their candidate, incumbent governor Mario Cuomo, lost. George Pataki beat him because he received more votes combined over all of his party lines.

In the 1998 election, the new Working Families Party and Green Party gained automatic ballot access while the Tax Cut Now Party, who did not run a candidate in the election failed to re-qualify.

In the 2002 election, three qualified parties failed to re-qualify: the Liberal Party, Right to Life Party, and the Green Party. The Liberals became dormant, the Right to Life dramatically scaled back its operations, while the Greens continued mostly unaffected before re-qualifying in 2010.

The same five parties who qualified in 2002 re-qualified in the 2006 election.

After the 2010 elections, these parties with ballot access were joined by a sixth party, the Green Party.

Two additional parties qualified in the 2014 elections: the Women's Equality Party (a front for incumbent governor Andrew Cuomo) and the Stop Common Core Party (a line created by Republican candidate Rob Astorino). The Stop Common Core Party rechristened itself the Reform Party, initially unrelated to the national Reform Party, on February 17, 2015. In an effort to quash a trademark infringement dispute from the national Reform Party, the state party allowed national Reform Party officers, including chairman Bill Merrill, to take over the party. In September 2016, Curtis Sliwa orchestrated a hostile takeover of the Reform Party, and it is no longer related to the national party.

For the first time in the 48-year history of the Libertarian Party of New York, the party qualified for automatic ballot access with Larry Sharpe's 90,816 votes. In addition, former Syracuse mayor Stephanie Miner achieved automatic ballot access for the newly created Serve America Movement line. The Women's Equality Party and the Reform Party failed to re-qualify. Shortly after the Libertarian Party (United States) and Serve America Movement qualified for ballot access, the New York State Board of Elections raised the threshold for automatic ballot access from 50,000 votes to 2% or about 130,000 votes. As a result, both parties had their automatic ballot access rescinded. The Libertarian Party sued for ballot access,[7] as did the Serve America Movement.[8] The Serve America Movement lawsuit was against Todd D. Valentine and Robert A. Brehm, the Co-Execute Directors of the New York State Board of Elections, and Peter S. Kosinski, Douglas A. Kellner, and Andrew J. Spano, the Commissioners of the New York State Board of Elections. District Judge John G. Koeltl denied the request.[9] The Libertarian Party of New York and the Green Party of New York filed a joint lawsuit against the New York Board of Elections, its chairs, commissioners, and executive directors. District Judge John G. Koeltl denied the request.[10] Consequently, the Libertarian Party, Serve America Movement, Green Party, and Independence Party of New York have had their ballot access removal upheld. Larry Sharpe (politician) has indicated that he may "sue personally" for ballot access during the announcement of an exploratory committee to run for Governor of New York again in 2022.[11]

The 2020 presidential race was the first presidential race to count for automatic ballot access in addition to the gubernatorial race. It was also the first election under the new qualification threshold where candidates were required to receive the greater of 130,000 votes or 2% of the vote to maintain automatic ballot access. The Libertarian Party of New York, the Green Party of New York, and the Independence Party of New York did not receive enough votes to re-qualify.[12] The Serve America Movement was unable to re-qualify since it did not run a candidate.[13]

This is the first New York gubernatorial election in over 80 years not featuring any third-party candidates after the New York State Board of Elections rejected the petitions of all the minor parties that put forward candidates.[15]