New York’s Democratic-led state legislature passed a bill over the weekend to move elections for county and town government from odd-numbered to even-numbered years, and while Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul said she still needs to review the legislation, she sounds likely to sign it. “I would say having elections in the year when there’s more people turning out for either a presidential or a gubernatorial race, it increases turnout,” said the governor, “and more people voting in these elections is always better for democracy.”
The bill would impact races for county executive and county legislature as well as for town supervisor and town legislature, though it would only take effect starting in 2025. As a result, this year’s races for executive in populous communities like Dutchess, Erie, and Suffolk counties would still proceed as planned, and the winners would still earn four-year terms. However, winners in 2025 and 2027 would be elected to abbreviated terms in order to realign the calendar.
But even if Hochul approves the bill, many local contests, including all elections in New York City, will still be conducted in odd-numbered years for the foreseeable future. The state constitution, explains Spectrum News, determines the timing of elections in municipalities that are classified as cities or villages for offices such as mayor. It also governs the calendar for other posts, like district attorney and sheriff, that are elected at the county level. However, the legislation’s impact would still be considerable, since it would affect all counties outside of New York City as well as New York’s 933 towns, which are collectively home to almost half the state’s 20 million residents.
Supporters are eager to bring even more elections into alignment, but the hurdles are much higher. “This is the first step,” Assemblywoman Amy Paulin, one of the cosponsors of the legislation, told Gothamist. “The next step [is] changing elements to the constitution.” State law requires both chambers to pass a potential constitutional amendment during two successive sessions of the legislature with an election in between before it can get on the ballot, so the soonest voters could weigh in would be 2025.
Republicans, though, have made it clear they think the bill on Hochul’s desk already goes too far. Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon, whose jurisdiction includes Syracuse, claimed in remarks to The Post-Standard that Democrats were pursuing these reforms “to have one-party rule in every level of government.”
But McMahon, who holds an office the Democrats have never won since its creation in 1961, is one of many Republicans who’ve benefited from the status quo. Despite the fact that Democratic candidates for president have won Onondaga for three straight decades, the incumbent prevailed by a comfortable 55-45 margin in 2019, and he looks like the favorite this fall against Democratic County Legislator Bill Kinne.
The New York Association of Counties, which has argued a calendar shift would prevent voters from focusing on local races, also expressed its opposition. But cosponsor James Skoufis, a Democratic senator who first proposed similar legislation in 2013, pointed to low turnout in odd years as reason why change is needed.
“Why are you afraid of higher turnout?” Skoufis asked GOP critics. “As it stands right now in a lot of these local town county elections, you have 20 or so percent of voters deciding the outcome for the entire jurisdiction. Why are you so afraid of 50, 60, 70% of voters determining who should hold these local positions?”
Research has shown that moving off-year elections to even-numbered years boosts voter participation considerably, with one study finding that turnout in municipal races had tripled after similar reforms were introduced in California. That higher turnout also tends to yield a voter base that’s more reflective of the population as a whole, compared to the whiter and more conservative electorates that typically show up in odd years.
