Blakeman looking into challenging even-year voting change
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| Kathy Hochul |
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| Bruce Blakeman |
Republican Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman wants to spend up to $500,000 researching the possibility of challenging a state-approved change in local elections voting cycles.
Blakeman has filed with the county legislature a contract to hire the Manhattan law firm of Genova, Burns "to review, evaluate and analyze a proposed NY Senate Bill 3505 to determine the viability of prospective litigation challenging same on behalf of the County of Nassau."
It's unclear why Blakeman refers to "a proposed" senate bill that will change local elections from odd years to even years, since Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul signed it into law in December.
The change will take effect next year.
Currently county, town and village elections occur in odd years while presidential and gubernatorial elections are held in even years.
Traditionally, odd-year elections draw far fewer voters than races for governor and president.
State Democrats who voted in favor the bill said they want to increase voter turnout.
But opponents say Democrats want to increase their chances of winning in local elections since more Democratic voters turn out for the big-name races.
Opponents also say the ballot will be so long that voters will never make it to the candidates and issues at the end of it.
Blakeman slammed the change in his State of the County speech this week.
"The state is now interjecting itself sadly into local elections by changing local elections from odd years to even years," he said.
"That means our local officials, our county and town officials...are going to have to run in presidential and gubernatorial years.
"Can you imagine how long the ballot will be? There is already ballot drop off in those years...our community issues that will get drowned out by federal and state issues
"This is outrageous. It's blatantly political, cynical and its wrong. It's instructive to note they didn't change the law for New York City; the mayor and City Council are still going to run in odd years."
"If they claim they are saving money and being more efficient, why aren't they doing it in New York City, which is much larger than Nassau and Suffolk counties...
"Its not fair to our residents. It's not right. I'm calling on local officials to step up and say this is wrong. This is partisan politics. It's blatantly political and we have to change it back to where it was."
Looks like suing state officials may become a thing in Nassau County.
Blakeman last week filed suit against Democrat New York State Attorney General Letitia James in a dispute over transgender athletes. Blakeman had banned transgender women, ie biological men who identify as women, from competing against biological girls and women in county facilities. James issued a cease and desist order and Blakeman filed suit against her, saying he wanted to protect biological women and prevent discrimination against them.
This is the death knell. Too late now.
ReplyDeleteNassau GOP runs every race on national and state issues. Bizarre reason to object.
ReplyDeleteEvery GOP candidate runs on issues that are beyond the jurisdiction of the office being sought. Half of Blakeman's own County campaign was on Bail Reform- a state issue.
ReplyDeleteThe real reason the Nassau GOP opposes this: no more leap-frogging seats. No more running campaigns for higher office- using government resources to run around and do photo ops and press conferences- from a comfortable town or county office and having a safety net if they lose. Now every candidate has to run for office and risk having to find a real job come January, or having the ability to appoint a hand-picked successor into artificial incumbency if they do win. There's also the issue of perhaps simply not having enough candidates either viable or willing to run for all of these offices.
can't hack it in the real world god forbid any of them had to find a job
DeleteThere's always a 6-figure salary job open on the Nassau Board of Elections. . .
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