Albany

A group of around 80 supporters of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders' White House bid rallied Thursday outside the Pearl Street headquarters of the state Board of Elections as they awaited the arrival of boxes of petitions.

Once filed, the petitions will allow Sanders to run on the April 19 Democratic primary ballot in New York.

Statewide, Sanders' supporters — including the state Working Families Party — said they had collected roughly 85,000 signatures. The stack of boxes on the counter at the board's offices were arranged by congressional district as they were taken in by elections officials.

Richard Sahr of East Nassau was one of the first petition-haulers to arrive at the fifth-floor offices. He spent a week collecting signatures in his predominantly rural stretch of the 19th Congressional District.

He described the general response to his outreach as "very positive."

"I went to one house where the guy went ballistic. ... 'He's a socialist! Are you crazy?'" Sahr said.

Volunteers in the sprawling 19th district, which stretches from Rensselaer County to Poughkeepsie, ended up collecting around 4,000 signatures, Sahr said — far above the initial goal of 500.

Sahr said he had to revisit about 15 people after he discovered he had mistakenly been given a New York City petition form.

Hillary Clinton's team reported filing roughly the same number of signatures.