State Senate Candidate Loses Independent Line ROCHESTER, NY (WXXI) - A decision by an Erie County judge Tuesday will likely knock a senate candidate off her third party line in next month's election.

Democrat Kathy Konst, who's running in the 59th district, had collected petitions to run with a party of her own creation called the Integrity Party. But after testimony Tuesday from about a dozen people who signed that petition, Judge Timothy Drury ruled the petitions invalid.

Craig Miller is a spokesperson for incumbent Republican Dale Volker, who brought the suit. Miller says the judge found that many of those signatures were in fact not valid. Miller says many of Konst's signatures were from voters outside of the district, and that people who signed some petitions were not properly sworn in.

Konst says it's common to receive a few signatures from outside the district, and that it's long been a practice to simply confirm that a person lives in the district, rather than having them swear an oath. She says this ruling could change how petitions are collected across the state.

Konst says the Volker campaign wanted to knock her third party line off the ballot because he "sees her as a threat."

Konst was considering an appeal Tuesday evening. She will still appear on the Democratic line, and on the Integrity Line on overseas military ballots, which were certified earlier this week.

Volker will appear on the Republican, Conservative and Independence Party lines.

The district runs south of Rochester, between Canandaigua and Lake Erie.

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