NEW YORK – A bill sponsored by Senator James Skoufis (D, Cornwall) that would consolidate most town and county elections from odd to even year schedules awaits action by the governor.
The measure would synchronize local races with state and federal contests.
Skoufis, a Democrat, said that would bring out a much larger voter turnout than now, pointing to only about 30 percent could cast ballots for local elections weeks ago.
“Moving these races to even-numbered years as the bill proposes would leverage the 70-plus turnout that we see in a lot of communities for especially presidential races, to some lesser extent, races for the governor’s office, leverage that higher turnout and ensure that a far more significant number of voices are being heard when choosing who is going to be your town supervisor, who is going to be your county executive, who are going to be your legislators on the town board in that county legislature,” he said.
Not everyone supports the measure. Rockland County Executive Ed Day, a Republican, said the proposal is “clearly an attack on local elections.”
He said it would dilute the ability of the voter to learn about the federal, state, and local races, all in the same election season.
“It would be incredibly insulting to make such a drastic decision, impacting local elections statewide, without any formal input from taxpayers,” Day said.
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