NY Court Greenlights Even-Year Voting Law That Republicans Say Rigs Elections Against Them
A New York state appeals court on Wednesday overturned a previous ruling that struck down a New York law that could, as described by one Republican legislator, make Republicans go “extinct” in the state.
The state passed a law in 2023 that moved certain local elections, such as those for county legislator, executive, and “town officers,” to even-numbered years, coinciding with state and federal elections, which statistically have higher voter turnout. Several counties have challenged the law with various arguments, including that it “violates home rule” and “conflicts” with county charters, according to reports.
According to the court’s Wednesday ruling, “plaintiffs [sought] declarations that … the Even Year Election Law … is unconstitutional because, among other reasons, it violates article IX of the New York Constitution, which grants home rule powers to local governments.”
But the court ruled, in part, that while local governments have a right under the state constitution to a “legislative body elective by the people” and “alternative forms of county government … neither of those provisions gives a county exclusive local control over the manner in which local elections will be held or the specific details of each office.”
Overall, the court declared that the even-year election law “does not violate the New York Constitution or the United States Constitution.”
Will Truitt, chairman of the county legislature in Dutchess County, tells The Federalist the court’s decision is “deeply concerning.” He suggested the decision from the court “give[s] Albany politicians the unilateral ability to hinder local elections and overrule ratified County Charters” and “represents a significant threat to sovereignty reserved for local governments.”
“It is beyond clear that the diminishing in popularity Democrats in Albany … don’t believe our local town, city and county matters deserve their own platform to be heard in our customary odd-year elections, but rather, should be tossed to the rear-end of their presidential and gubernatorial ballots,” Truitt said. “By doing this, local issues will be drowned out and made invisible next to the billions of dollars spent on federal and state campaigns that overtake our airwaves.”
New York Assemblyman Anil Beephan told The Federalist the “decision is nothing short of a disaster for democracy—and a gift-wrapped power grab for Albany’s ruling class.”
“Let’s call this what it is: the ‘Republican Extinction Act.’ Democrats wrote this law to erase local opposition by hijacking federal election cycles, manipulating turnout, and tipping the scales in their favor,” Beephan told The Federalist. “This isn’t about fairness—it’s about control. The court may have spoken, but voters aren’t blind. This isn’t reform. It’s rigging. We are actively exploring every legal option to appeal this ruling, because the constitutional implications are too dangerous to ignore.”
Beephan previously told The Federalist that “local elections are their own animals and counties have the inherent right to follow their charter.”
“The issues are different, the reasons why people vote are different — local elections are more focused on things happening within your community,” he explained. “Combining it with state and federal issues detracts from the importance of those conversations.”
Beephan explained that if local elections coincide with federal elections, local candidates “are going to be suddenly answering their thoughts on abortion and other state issues when really they should be thinking about infrastructure, public safety, and local taxes.”
His comments were reiterated by Republican State Sen. George Borrello, who told The Federalist that “[t]he biggest damage that this law will cause is how state and federal elections will drown out local elections.”
“Local candidates … and [c]ounty races will not be able to compete with the rhetoric [and] the noise and the money spent on the race about them. The issues that are important to local elections will be drowned out. That’s probably the most tragic impact.”
Borello explained that while areas with strong Republican turnout “will probably become even redder … [T]he same will be true in areas that have more dominant Democrat enrollment.”
“You will have more people that are focused on party affiliation than on the people they are voting for and the issues that are important at the local level,” he said
According to a Friday afternoon report from Spectrum News 1, Republican “challengers to the law petitoned to the state Court of Appeals on Thursday to take up the case” following the ruling.
Brianna Lyman is an elections correspondent at The Federalist. Brianna graduated from Fordham University with a degree in International Political Economy. Her work has been featured on Newsmax, Fox News, Fox Business and RealClearPolitics. Follow Brianna on X: @briannalyman2
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