Cheektowaga voters will decide in November if the town should adopt a ward system for elections as a response to a resident’s complaint that voting in the town is unfair for minority residents.
In a complaint submitted to the town under the new John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act of New York, Cheektowaga resident Ken Young, who ran as a Democrat in the most recent Town Board election, claimed the town’s at-large voting system prevents minority voters from electing their preferred candidates.
But a lawyer representing the man whose complaint led to the planned referendum said the town is not solving the problem by putting the question to voters and he plans to take legal action before that happens.
The Cheektowaga Town Board unanimously voted Tuesday to put the question on the ballot for the November general election. The decision comes three months after resident and former Town Board candidate Ken Young filed a complaint under the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act of New York claiming there is racially polarized voting in the town, meaning minorities cannot elect the candidates they prefer under the town’s current at-large voting system.
The Town Board hired two experts to review elections in Cheektowaga dating to 2015, and they found that…
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