This is a special proceeding pursuant to Election Law §16-102. Petitioners Joseph Nadel and Lawrence Garvey, joined by Respondent/Cross-Petitioner John Shanks, challenge Respondents Justin Sweet and Joshua Goldfein’s certificates of declination, along with the subsequent certificates of substitution of Respondents Elijah Reichlin-Melnick and Nancy Goroff, as Working Families Party’s candidates for State Senate and Congress, respectively. Petitioners argue that the declinations are invalid because the judicial convention that nominated Sweet and Goldfein as candidates for Justice of the Supreme Court was not properly constituted, and that the entire judicial nomination process was a political sham. Respondents move to dismiss the Petition arguing, inter alia, that the Court has no jurisdiction to address the merits because this proceeding was not commenced within the statutory period. For the reasons set forth below, the relief requested in the Verified Petition is DENIED, and the Petition and Cross-Petition are DISMISSED. I. On August 10, 2020, the 11th Judicial District Convention of the Working Families Party filed a certificate of nomination with Respondent New York City Board of Elections that purportedly nominated Respondents Joshua Goldfein, Justin Sweet, Valerie Cartright, Bob Cohen, Judith Goldliner, Kenneth Schaeffer, Steven Williams and Afua Atta-Mensah as candidates for Justice of the Supreme Court in the November 3, 2020 general election (NYSCEF Doc. 2). The Working Families Party had previously designated Goldfein as its candidate for New York’s 1st Congressional District, and Sweet as its candidate for New York’s 38th State Senate District in the 2020 general election (NYSCEF Doc. 2). Goldfein and Sweet accepted the judicial nominations, and filed certificates of declination with Respondents Suffolk County and New York State Boards of Elections for the Congressional and State Senate offices (NYSCEF Doc. 2, 10). The State Executive Board of the Working Families Party met on August 14, 2020, in response to the vacancies created by Sweet and Goldfein’s declinations, and on August 17, 2020, filed certificates of substitution designating Respondents Nancy Goroff and Elijah Reichlin-Melnick as the party’s candidates for the 1st Congressional District and 38th State Senate District, respectively (NYSCEF Doc. 2, 11). By Decision and Judgment dated September 9, 2020, in a separate Onondaga County election proceeding, Dooher v. Williams, this Court found that, “with respect to Respondent Williams only,” the 11th Judicial District nominating convention of the Working Families Party was not lawfully constituted because the delegates elected to that convention were not substantially in compliance with the proportional representation requirement of Election Law §6-124 (NYSCEF Doc. 41 under Index No. 005089/2020). The Court then invalidated Williams’ certificate of declination in the 24th Congressional District and, in a Decision and Judgment filed that same day in a companion Onondaga County action, Dadey v. Balter, invalidated the subsequent substitution of Dana Balter to that vacancy (NYSCEF Doc. 20 under Index No. 005259/2020). On September 17, 2020, Petitioners Joseph Nadel and Lawrence Garvey commenced this special proceeding pursuant to Election Law §16-102, asserting — along with Respondent/Cross-Petitioner John Shanks — that this Court’s finding in Dooher v. Williams that the Working Families Party’s 11th Judicial District nominating convention was not properly constituted should be applied to all eight candidates nominated at that convention, and that the subsequent declinations and substitutions of Respondents Goldfein, Sweet, Goroff and Reichlin-Melnick should therefore be invalidated. This Court executed an Order to Show Cause, and set a return date on the special proceeding for September 23, 2020. Respondents Goroff, Sweet, Reichlin-Melnick, Cartright, Cohen, Goldliner, Schaeffer, and Atta-Mensah oppose the requested relief and move to dismiss the Petition, asserting that Petitioner Nadel has no standing, that the proceeding was not timely commenced, and that Petitioners failed to join all necessary parties. The Suffolk County and New York State Boards of Elections take no position with respect to the requested relief. There were no appearances by Respondents Steven Williams, Joshua Goldfein, John Haggerty or the City of New York Board of Elections (although the City of New York Board of Elections did file election records as directed in the Order to Show Cause). II. A Court presiding over a special proceeding under Article 16 of the Election Law must resolve all potentially dispositive procedural objections before addressing the underlying merits of the action (Castracan v. Colavita, 173 AD2d 924, 925 [3d Dept 1991]). Here, Respondents move to dismiss the Petition and Cross-Petition based upon several potentially dispositive procedural defenses, including timeliness under the statute of limitations, standing of petitioner Nadel, and the failure to join necessary parties. With respect to timeliness, Respondents Cartright, Cohen, Goldliner, Schaeffer, Atta-Mensah, Goroff, Sweet and Reichlin-Melnick argue that the Petition and Cross-Petition must be dismissed because they were not filed, and the proceedings were not fully instituted, within the strict 10-day statute of limitations under Election Law §16-102(2). Petitioners contend that this Court is not constrained by that statute, and may exercise jurisdiction and grant a declaratory judgment or relief under CPLR Article 78. However, the authority of a court to preside over election law matters “is limited to the powers expressly conferred by statute” (Scaringe v. Ackerman, 119 AD2d 327, 328 [3d Dept 1986] affd 68 NY2d 885 [1986]). Accordingly, “[w]hen a party seeks judicial intervention in the election process characterization of the proceeding or relief as pursuant to CPLR Article 78 will not enable intervention in the election process when it would not otherwise be available under the Election Law” (New York State Comm. of the Independence Party v. New York State Bd. of Elections, 87 AD3d 806, 810 [3d Dept 2011]). Here, Petitioners ask the Court to invalidate Goldfein and Sweet’s certificates of nomination, filed on August 10, 2020 (NYSCEF Doc. 1,
