- 11 - Nos. 56 & 58 physical interactions with others to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Since the truncated filing timeframe was passed to mitigate the pandemic, petitioner’s completion of the selfisolation period resulting in the late filing of the remaining necessary election documents comported with the underlying purpose and intent of Chapter 24. Moreover, petitioner’s filing of the cover sheet and certificate of acceptance met the original statutory deadlines set forth before the passage of Chapter 24 since both documents were filed on or before April 2, 2020 (see Election Law § 6-158 [1], [2]). As the Appellate Division pointed out, “no claim of fraud has been alleged” with respect to petitioner’s designating petition, “there is no evidence of specific actual prejudice presented,” and the BOE seems to primarily “contend[] that a cover sheet is necessary for administrative convenience” (2020 NY Slip Op 02900 at *2). The legislature and executive undoubtedly sought to place public health above administrative convenience in their passage of Chapter 24 and multi-pronged response to COVID-19. Thus, in this unique situation where petitioner did not and could not comply with an accelerated filing timeline solely because she was following the government’s prescribed response to and recommendations for a pandemic, prior conflicting law and administrative convenience must give way to public health needs and the paramount right to ballot access. Petitioner’s protected right to run for elected office as a Democratic and Working Families Party candidate (see Golden v Clark, 76 NY2d 618, 624-625 [1990]) cannot and should not be so easily subverted. In other words, the purpose and spirit of Chapter 24 was to mitigate the spread of COVID-19; the majority’s narrow and inflexible reading of that provision, along with other relevant provisions of the Election Law, on the - 11 -