NY Even-Year Election Case Has High Court Mulling Local Power

New York’s highest court on Monday will weigh whether the Legislature has the power to overrule counties and dictate when and how local elections are handled.

At issue is the state’s Even Year Election Law, which took effect in January and moves many county and town elections to take place on even-year cycles alongside state and federal offices. Some local offices are exempt from the change, as are New York City and other large cities.

Eight Republican-leaning counties and individual voters want the court to declare the law violates the state constitution, which grants home rule powers to local governments—including the ability to hold elections in odd-numbered years, which tend to attract lower turnout.

“Often, the courts in those circumstances will yield to the legislature, unless it seems the legislature directly violated a state law,” said Jeffrey Wice, professor at New York Law School.

But there’s also a strong history in New York of giving local governments significant power to regulate themselves and making sure their rights are respected, said Joseph Burns, a partner at Holtzman Vogel Baran Torchinsky & Josefiak PLLC.

If the court sides with the state and allows the law to move forward, there could be “some shifts in how the political game is played,” said Burns, who formerly worked for the state Board of Elections. “I’m not sure if anybody has totally figured out how that’s going to work.”

A Friendly Court

The state argues that holding local elections on even-numbered years would increase turnout. But county leaders say the law will create longer ballots that could overwhelm voters, and that local issues could be drowned out by larger and more well-funded federal campaigns.

Local officials “can’t afford to raise a million dollars every cycle to get our message out,” said Ryan McMahon, chair of the New York Association of Counties’ International Economic Development Innovation Council and one of the lead plaintiffs in the case.

The high court’s most recent election-related cases could signal support for the state, said Wice, who chairs the New York City Bar Association’s Election Law Committee.

The Court of Appeals has “been much friendlier to the legislature” since Chief Judge Rowan Wilson took the reins in 2023, he added. The court over the past two years has sided with Democrats in redistricting, mail-in ballot, and canvassing cases.

But Burns said the court should be homing in on “the tremendous authority that’s been given to local governments—specifically counties—to organize themselves” rather than trying to be sympathetic to the Democratic-controlled legislature, and ask how local power gets “reconciled with this law.”

Counties also argue that because the law doesn’t apply to New York City—the largest municipality in the state—it undercuts the goal of increasing voter turnout throughout the state. The city is separately addressing the topic, announcing in July that its general election ballot this November will include a question about moving local elections to presidential election years.

Implementation Questions

Under the law, town and county general elections will still be held this November, but the winners of those elections will have their terms shortened by one year so future elections can be held in even-numbered years, the state explains in its brief.

New York has seen these kinds of changes before, Wice said. In the short term, elected officials “will have to figure out when their terms end, if sooner than expected, and if that’s going to change the composition of local governments. And there will be a process of adapting to staggered implementation of the law,” he explained.

Boards of elections have been preparing for the changes, and there shouldn’t be “much of a difference in terms of voter experience” if the law is upheld, said Ben Weinberg, director of public policy for Citizens Union, which supports the law.

But Burns said that the law could result in statewide and presidential campaigns dominating even more of the conversation.

“If you’re a candidate for highway supervisor and you’re on the ballot with members of Congress, how are you going to get any attention? How are you going to get your message out about getting issues out to your constituents when you’re competing with the attention of voters?” he asked.

The case is Cnty. of Onondaga v. New York, N.Y., No. APL-2025-00088, oral argument scheduled 9/8/25.