OPINION OF THE COURT

Memorandum.

The order of the Appellate Division should be reversed, without costs, and the case remitted to Supreme Court for its consideration of the application of respondents in our court for a direction to the board of elections to provide the enrolled Democratic voters in Nassau County an opportunity to write in the names of candidates for the offices at issue (cf. Matter of Brown v Ulster County Bd. of Elections, 48 NY2d 614).

The designation of the “city or town” in the statement of a witness to a designating petition is a matter of the legislatively mandated content of the petition, i.e., a matter of substance and not of form. It follows then that omission to include the prescribed information is fatal *743 (Matter of Hutson v Bass, 54 NY2d 772; Matter of Alamo v Black, 51 NY2d 716; Matter of Higby v Mahoney, 48 NY2d 15).

Chief Judge Cooke and Judges Jasen, Jones, Fuchs-berg, Sweeney* and Kane * concur; Judges Gabrielli, Wachtler and Meyer taking no part.

Order reversed, without costs, designating petitions invalidated and matter remitted to Supreme Court, Nassau County, for further proceedings in accordance with the memorandum herein.