Governor Kathy Hochul and the Democrat-led New York State legislature passed the "Even Year Election Law" in December 2023, forcing many local elections to even years to align with state and federal elections. The New York State Supreme Court ruled that the new law violates the state constitution.
Eight New York counties filed suit claiming that Article IX of the state constitution gives localities the power over their local elections. The state claimed the opposite – that Article IX entitled the state to make laws affecting local elections if there was a “substantial interest to the state.” The primary "substantial interest" was boosting voter turnout.
New York State Supreme Court Judge Gerard Neri disagreed with the state’s argument and ruled that “counties have the constitutional right to set their terms of office.”
Proponents of the law said it would boost voter turnout. Judge Neri said in his ruling, “There must be a matter of state concern for the state to invade the province of local control.” Clearly, the judge did not see boosting voter turnout as a compelling argument or even a "problem" that needed to be addressed.
The law would have taken effect in January 2025. Interestingly, the law would only have applied to Long Island and Upstate – leaving New York City to plan its own elections as it always had. It has not gone unnoticed by critics that the overwhelming majority of Republican voters live outside NYC. Neri noted that roughly half of the state's population would be exempt from the law. He wrote, “Are the urbane voters of New York City less likely to be confused by the odd-year elections than the rubes living in Upstate and Long Island.”
The reason Hochul and the Democrats in the legislature wanted to move local elections from odd years to even years, aligning them with state and federal elections, was to boost turnout and help Democrat candidates in districts that might be Republican or Republican-leaning. In a state like New York, with a Democrat enrollment majority, moving local elections to align with statewide and federal elections, where Democrat voter turnout is large, makes it all the harder for local Republicans to keep and take seats in their town and village elections.
Brookhaven Supervisor, Dan Panico reacted to the court’s decision saying, “A New York State Supreme Court Justice has ruled against the NYC controlled State Legislature, and Governor Hochul’s, attempts to lump local County and Town elections onto even year ballots. Justice Neri correctly points out that this overtly political move, which drowns out the importance of local government issues, only applied to Long Island and Upstate, exempting cities like New York City where half of the state’s population resides.
“The seemingly endless disparate treatment of Long Islanders by our New York State government must end - but don’t count on it. As we continue to resist the heavy-handed policies of the urban-centric Legislature and Governor, they will stop at nothing to push their agenda upon us as we see here with this latest attempt to unconstitutionally tamper with local election years,” Panico went on to say.
Congresswoman Claudia Tenney (R- NY24) applauded the NY Supreme Court ruling saying, “The common sense ruling from the New York Supreme Court today overturning Albany Democrats illegal even-year election law” is a big win for New Yorkers. “Not only is it bad policy and a logistical nightmare to have local elections on federal years. It is flagrantly illegal; many local counties and municipalities have odd-year elections written into their Charters.”
Tenney added, “Albany Democrats are interested in nothing more than confusing voters and grabbing power by abruptly ending our almost two-century-old tradition of running local elections off of federal years. As Co-Chair of the Election Integrity Caucus, this is straight out of the Democratic Party playbook, fail to win elections, jam through illegal procedures, and reforms.”