I witnessed the drawing for ballot position for the February primary at the NYS Board of Elections this morning . They use a Bingo set to randomly pull numbers to determine the order that candidates appear on the ballot.
Ron Paul was first on the candidate list thanks to Jim Ostrowski's early request submission to the Board, and the first ball drawn was number 1! so Ron Paul will be at the top of the primary ballot!
I assume that primary voters are a little more motivated than those in the general election, and that ballot position is not as important because of this, but it certainly can't hurt.
For those who are interested, here's how the candidates will be placed:
1 Ron Paul
2 Alan Keyes
3 Duncan Hunter
4 Tom Tancredo (although I just heard he's bowed out)
5 Rudy Giuliani
6 Mitt Romney
7 Mike Huckabee
8 John McCain
9 Fred Thompson