Move to even-year elections upheld by appellate court
A New York state appellate court in Rochester has unanimously upheld the law Governor Kathy Hochul signed in December 2023, moving most local elections to even-numbered years to coincide with state and federal elections. The five-judge panel also ruled that the law would take effect for the 2025 election cycle, cutting the terms of many local officials short by one year. This reverses the October 2024 lower court ruling that found the law unconstitutional.
As previously reported, Riverhead Town has a resolution in place to maintain the traditional odd-year arrangement. One of the arguments in favor of the schedule is allowing residents to focus on local races and issues without the distraction of the bigger contests.
“The appellate decision obviously was very disappointing to me. Right from the beginning, I have been against this, because I think, ‘What happens when you move everything to even your elections?’ That means it’s the bigger elections. Your state and federal elections are on even years, and it’s very easy for the local issues to get lost in the mix of the larger state and federal issues,” said Riverhead Town Supervisor Tim Hubbard. “I think when we had odd year elections, the towns, the villages, have a better chance of getting word out what they’re doing, what they want to do, what their candidates are all about. It gives the people a better choice, locally, to do an election on an odd-year as opposed to an even year when there’s much bigger fish to fry.”
The change has been described as a cost-saving measure. As things currently stand, the law does not change the voting year for judges, thus still requiring the polls to be manned in odd years. Moving these elections requires an amendment to the state constitution. In her announcement after signing the law, Governor Kathy Hochul called the change “a fiscally responsible approach that would reduce the taxpayer cost of election administration by avoiding the need for elections to be held every single year.”
“This only deals with certain members. Certain elected officials, judges and such, will be going forward on odd-year elections. So you still have to man the polls, you still have to set all the voting areas up and everything else. So it’s not a cost savings at all. As a matter of fact, it may end up costing more money in the long run,” said Mr. Hubbard.
Southold Town Supervisor Al Krupski stated that he could see both sides of the issue.
“The concern, of course, is that there’s so many people running for so many seats at one time that it’ll kind of dilute people’s attention. Obviously, the fiscal impact should be a big help, because it’s very expensive to run elections every year. So from the Board of Elections standpoint, if this simplifies things, mechanically it would be a big win,” said Mr. Krupski.
Voter fatigue, when constituents are overwhelmed by the number of issues and candidates they need to vote on, is also a concern, according to Mr. Hubbard.
“All you have to do is turn your TV on come election time in those even years. And you know, we’re getting commercials and messages just months and months prior to the election, and really, people get tired of hearing it,” said Mr. Hubbard. “And half of it is rhetoric that’s being said or not, total facts. It’s very disappointing that the whole system is run that way, but it definitely can cause voter fatigue. There’s no doubt in my mind.”
Mr. Krupski said that Southold would be taking up discussions of the issue and moving towards some kind of action, if needed.
“I understand standardizing it. On the other hand, the local elections are so important, and we have to make sure people pay attention to them,” said Supervisor Krupski. “People only have so much time — I get that. They’re going to pay attention to a different race at a different level of government that is the important topic at that time, versus making sure that their local election gets enough attention.”
The State Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments on September 8.
