Gov. Andrew Cuomo says he is not pushing to end fusion voting, the process that allows candidates for elected office to run on multiple ballot lines.

The questions surrounding the future of fusion voting is potentially under consideration by a commission that has been tasked with assembling the guidelines and rules for a system of publicly financed campaigns.

Fusion voting is the lifeblood for groups like the Working Families Party, a ballot line that often endorses Democrats in general elections. The liberal WFP initially endorsed Cynthia Nixon’s primary bid against Cuomo in 2018 and later the governor took the party’s ballot line after Nixon lost.

The episode is fueling concerns from the WFP that Cuomo wants to curtail fusion voting or at least minor parties. One of Cuomo’s appointees to the commission, Democratic Chairman Jay Jacobs, is a critic of the practice.

“Let’s see what the commission comes up with, but I wouldn’t advocate ending it, because I have done it continually as a practice,” Cuomo said during a brief question-and-answer session with reporters in Schenectady. “If I didn’t believe in it, I wouldn’t have done it. It would be like saying you don’t support journalism. It would be hard for you to say that.”

Cuomo reiterated that he has “run with fusion voting” and therefore supports it. Cuomo has held the WFP line in elections, along with the ballot line created at his behest, the Women’s Equality Party, and the Independence Party.

In 2002, he had the backing of the Liberal Party in an ill-fated run for governor. Cuomo ended his campaign as he ceded the Democratic primary to Carl McCall, and the party died soon after.

“I know it’s controversial,” he said of fusion voting. “I know a lot of editorial boards and good-government groups are against it.”

In recent days, the commission has begun to publicly consider a more direct approach that would affect minor parties: Raising the threshold for ballot qualifications from 50,000 votes in the gubernatorial election to as many as 250,000.

The commission could overhaul the structure of political campaigns and campaign fundraising, based on the recommendations in its report due to be released by the end of the month.

“It is up to the commission to design an entire system and these things have to work together,” Cuomo said. “Public finance is a very big move, it’s a positive move, but it’s a very big move.”