This week- State Court Hears Expert Reports in Congressional challenge; State Senate To Act on Election Legislation; New Western New York Judicial Districts Face Veto; February 3rd Redistricting CLE; Around the Nation- Missouri
LITIGATION
Congressional Redistricting
Williams et. al v. New York State Board of Elections et. al
On October 27th last year, a complaint was filed in New York County State Supreme Court asking that the state legislature create a new congressional district that includes Black and Latino residents of Staten Island and parts of lower Manhattan. The plaintiffs allege that the current district dilutes minority voting strength by coupling Staten Island with a part of Brooklyn. They seek to attach a part of lower Manhattan to the Staten Island district as a remedy.
From January 5th through January 8th, New York County Acting Supreme Court Justice Jeffrey Pearlman heard testimony from both petitioner and respondent experts. Among the witnesses that testified were Dr. Maxwell Palmer, William Cooper, Dr. Stephen Voss, and Dr. Alford. The experts for the plaintiffs and intervenor defendants (representing Congress Member Nicole Malliotakis (R) and the Republican members of the State Board of Elections sought to defend the plaintiff’s’ suggested illustrative map (joining lower Manhattan to Staten Island) or the defendants’ arguments against the change.
The main issue of contention with petitioners’ expert, Dr. Palmer, concerned communities of interest, specifically whether lower Manhattan shares a community of interest with Staten Island, or whether it is more closely related to the existing Brooklyn area.
In response, Dr. Voss challenged Dr. Palmer’s conclusions by arguing that Brooklyn and Staten Island are both commuter communities and therefore should be grouped together for purposes of better defining communities of interest. During cross-examination, petitioners questioned Dr. Voss’s critique of Dr. Palmer’s methodology, particularly Dr. Voss’s suggestion that a broader population should have been used rather than limiting the analysis to CD 11.
Nevertheless, Dr. Voss acknowledged that an overly broad scope, like the entire population of New York City’s 8.5 million residents, would also be too wide of a scope.
Separately, Dr. Alford, the respondent’s expert, focused on the distinction between partisanship and racial polarization, emphasizing that racial polarization is not the same as party polarization and contending that, in the current political climate, partisanship plays a more significant role in voting behavior than race.
The case now awaits a decision from Justice Pearlman.
LEGISLATION
State Senate Takes Up Election Laws
Today, the New York State Senate kicked off the 2026 legislative session by advancing a Democracy Day package of pro-voter proposals, continuing the current Majority’s tradition of beginning the year with a series of bills intended to safeguard modern access to the fundamental right to vote in the 2026 Midterm Elections and beyond. The package includes:
S1085 (Stewart-Cousins) / A3412 (Lavine): Prohibits deceptive practices and voter suppression. This legislation addresses election-related foul play. Recent examples of pernicious suppression tactics include a consultant transmitting thousands of voicemails with false information to enrolled Democrats two days before New York’s presidential primary election using an AI tool to mimic the voice and speech pattern of then-President Biden. Prior, during the 2020 election cycle, VA-based operatives Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman sent out robocalls to 85,000 individuals located in minority communities in New York, Illinois, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, disseminating intimidating voter misinformation.
- This legislation originally passed the senate in the 2009-10 session and is carried by the Senate Leader. The proposal passed the Senate unanimously in 2025, 2024, and 2023. The legislation has not advanced in the Assembly.
S324 (Gianaris) / A1258 (Walker): Enacts the democracy preservation act, which defines and prohibits contributions by “foreign-influenced business entities” and requires that business entities that make political expenditures or contributions file with the state board of elections certifying that they are not foreign-influenced
- This legislation passed the Senate on a bipartisan basis in 2025 (45-16), 2024 (48-14), and 2023 (50-13). In the Assembly, this bill is supported by 21 sponsors, but has not been given a vote in committee.
S1035 (Myrie) / A1228 (Seawright): Requires the State Board of Elections to create a mandatory, uniform training curriculum for election commissioners to ensure consistent training of Board leadership, improving professionalism and quality of local administration.
- This legislation passed the Senate in 2025 (57-4), 2024 (56-4), 2023 (55-6) with wide bipartisan support. In the Assembly, the bill has not been brought up for a floor vote.
S1036 (Myrie) / A3152 (Carroll): Codifies the voting rights of second-home owners and college students, by clarifying that an otherwise-eligible voter may register to vote at a residence where the voter maintains a continuous connection with intent to remain, including a second home, vacation home, or college home / housing.
- This legislation passed the Senate in 2025 (39-22), 2024 (41-20), and 2023 (40-21) largely on a party line vote. The legislation advanced to the Assembly floor in 2022.
S568 (May): Authorizes election officials to deploy three-day early voting locations, improving and optimizing voter access in populous and rural areas, while conserving public resources. This provides election boards with flexibility to tailor the early voting footprint to local needs, allowing for a three-day option that supplements the standard nine-day program.
- This legislation passed the Senate in 2025 (38-22), 2024 (42-20), and 2023 (43-17), with bipartisan support in prior years. In the Assembly (A6971-2024), the legislation has not been put up for a vote by the Election Law committee.
S8604 (Skoufis) / A9310 (Dais): Moves the date of the presidential primary to Super Tuesday (the first Tuesday in March, 2028). This legislation aligns New York’s presidential primary date with America’s most prevalent presidential primary election event, increasing the state’s influence in the national nominating process. States that vote earlier in the calendar tend to play a more consequential role in each party’s nominating process. The sponsors hope to provide New York voters with a more meaningful voice, while the contest remains competitive.
S8646A (Gonzales): The New York Election Officer Protection Act is a new bill intended to protect current and former election officials and poll workers from intimidation and harassment. A new cause of action creates a rebuttable presumption that a person who displays a firearm inside a polling place has engaged in unlawful intimidation, while a new misdemeanor prohibits unlawful dissemination of personal information of an election officer. Proponents including the Brennan Center for Justice argue that election officials face increasingly serious threats and need these new tools to shield election workers from abuse.
JUDICIAL REDISTRICTING
New Western New York Judicial Districts Facing Veto
As reported by Brian Lee in the New York Law Journal on January 5th, Assemblyman Jonathan Rivera (D-Erie) expects to reintroduce legislation this year to create additional judicial districts in Western New York. Rivera’s 2025 legislation to create new districts is apparently getting a pocket veto from Governor Kathy Hochul. The bill (A.8883/S.8418) was sent to the Governor on December 31. While she now has until the end of January to act on the bill, Rivera heard from the Governor’s office that she will not sign the bill.
The legislation would create new judicial districts in Monroe, Erie, and Onondaga counties. Currently only two judges out of 67 in western New York are Black. The legislation seeks to create new districts to help unclog the backlog of cases in these counties as well as to create new opportunities for Black and Hispanic judges.
According to Lee’s article, “Rivera said Hochul’s staff told him it shares concerns expressed by the Unified Court System: that the bill would create two extremely large rural districts that would be difficult to administer, and that their five-district plan will have an adverse impact on litigants and court users, and contains several technical flaws.
VOTING RIGHTS ACT
N.Y. Attorney General’s Office Preclearance
981- New York City Board of Elections- under review
This submission relates to a proposed Early Voting poll site change in Queens County affecting the 36th Assembly District Special Election scheduled for Tuesday, February 3, 2026, as called by the Governor on Friday, January 2, 2026
941- New York City Board of Elections- granted
This submission addressed early voting hours for any special election(s) to be conducted in February of 2026.
All submissions can be viewed at: https://nyvra-portal.ag.ny.gov/
UPCOMING EVENTS
Tuesday, February 3rd from 6:00 to 8:00 PM
Mid-Decade Redistricting and New York Reforms – New York Law School will sponsor a CLE class on redistricting reform, including presentations on mid-decade redistricting and what’s could be expected to happen in New York during the 2026 state legislative sesion. Speakers include New York Law School’s Jeff WIce, Brennan Center Vice President Kareem Crayton and Jonathan Cervas of Carnegie Mellion University (special master for the court in the 2022 congressional and state senate remapping).
Two New York State CLE credits will be provided to participants. There is no fee to view the program. You can register here: https://nyls.wufoo.com/forms/q17dd6is1cw54v4/
AROUND THE NATION
MISSOURI: Missouri Secretary of State misleads voters on ballot language for gerrymander referendum
The Missouri secretary of state’s office admitted in court last week that ballot language was authored to “prejudice” voters against a referendum seeking to prevent the state’s new gerrymandered map from going into effect. After voters successfully placed a referendum on the ballot to repeal the map enacted by the GOP leadership last year, the secretary of state’s office summarized the ballot question for voters with ““Do the people of the state of Missouri approve the act of the General Assembly entitled ‘House Bill No. 1 (2025 Second Extraordinary Session),’ which repeals Missouri’s existing gerrymandered congressional plan that protects incumbent politicians, and replaces it with new congressional boundaries that keep more cities and counties intact, are more compact, and better reflects statewide voting patterns?”
The language will be changed pursuant to further court action.
INSTITUTE RESOURCES
The New York Elections, Census and Redistricting Institute has archived many resources for the public to view on our Digital Commons Page.
Our Redistricting Resources page contains resources on the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act. You can access the page
here: https://digitalcommons.nyls.edu/redistricting_resources/
Archived Updates can be accessed
here: https://digitalcommons.nyls.edu/redistricting_roundtable_updates/
Please share this weekly update with your colleagues. To be added to the mailing list, please contact Jeffrey.wice@nyls.edu
The N.Y. Elections, Census & Redistricting Institute is supported by grants from the New York Community Trust, New York Census Equity Fund, the Mellon Foundation, and the New York City Council. This report was prepared by Jeff Wice, Esha Shah and Jarret Berg.