Aug 21, 2018 2:17 PM

East Hampton Town Councilman David Lys filed paperwork with the Suffolk County Board of Elections on Monday to form an independent political party line on the November ballot, potentially ensuring that he will have a spot on the ballot regardless of the outcome of next month’s Democratic Party primary.

Mr. Lys submitted petitions for the creation of the East Hampton Unity Party line, with the signatures of more than 350 town residents supporting the new party line and his nomination to be its candidate for the Town Board seat on the November ballot.

“This came out of my desire to do everything I can to continue to serve the residents of the town,” Mr. Lys said on Monday. “I wanted to make sure I had ballot access in November, no matter what happens in the primary. Since my opponent is creating a false narrative about me being a Republican, it allows me to get in front of the voters and explain who I am and ask them to sign an independent petition.”

Mr. Lys is facing David Gruber in a primary on September 13 for the Democratic Party line. Mr. Lys, a lifelong Republican who filed to change his voter registration to Democrat in December, was appointed to the Town Board in January by the Democratic majority and maintains the support of the party’s longtime leadership.

But an internal rift this past winter over the election of a new party chairman has spurred a factional division, and Mr. Gruber’s decision to challenge Mr. Lys for the party’s nomination, as well as dueling slates of candidates for the party’s 38 committee seats.

The petitions still need to be validated by the Board of Elections, and Republican Party Chairman Amos Goodman filed a general challenge to their validity just hours after they were submitted. Mr. Goodman will have a week to review the signatures on the petition and raise any issues that may disqualify them from being counted toward the 320 required to create the new party line.

“They have to be clean signatures—they can’t have signed any other petitions—so we’ll be taking a look at those,” Mr. Goodman said.

If his petitions are validated by the Board of Elections, Mr. Lys will have a line on the ballot even if he loses to Mr. Gruber, setting up a three-way race. Mr. Gruber also has a path to a third-party challenge on the Independence Party line, should he lose the Democratic primary, though Mr. Goodman is also challenging the petitions nominating him to that line in court, alleging that some of the signatures were forged by petition carriers.