This week: Adams’ Charter Revision Commission Concludes; Security Cameras at the Polls; Onondaga County Term Limits Compromise?; New York City’s Newest New Yorkers- A Report; Webinar/Learn About the Census Bureau’s Redistricting Data Program; New Bill Would Reshape New York Independent Expenditure Committee Obligations; Around The Nation
LITIGATION
N.Y.C. Open Primaries Challenge Court Challenge Concludes
Former Mayor Eric Adams appointed the so-called “zombie” NYC Charter Revision Commission on his final day in office, with its main agenda item focused on creating open primaries for city elections. On May 27, Mayor Mamdani disbanded the Commission, using new authority included in the state budget. Last week, attorney Randy Mastro, acting on behalf of the Adams Commission, informed the state courts that the commission will no longer pursue its goals, effectively disbanding it and ending any further action.
A petition-driven effort to place an open term limits law before New York City Voters in 2027 sponsored by Unite NY is pending.
ELECTIONS
NYS Board of Elections’ Division of Election Law Enforcement’s investigation into Security Cameras in Broadalbin
On Tuesday, July 21, City & State NY reported that in the town of Broadalbin in Fulton County surveillance cameras may have been illegally recording local court proceedings and voters casting ballots in the June 23 primary.
Both New York state and federal laws restrict or outright ban recording, including taking photos, or filming audio or video, inside a courthouse. The state’s Board of Elections’ Division of Election Law Enforcement is investigating claims that the security cameras were allegedly left on for over 10 hours of voting during the June 23 statewide primary election, potentially violating state and federal election law.
Broadalbin records show the town received $4,500 to install cameras in the courtroom and around the building through a 2016 state security grant under the Justice Court Assistance Program. The building has three security cameras, including two that show different angles of the courtroom.
Broadalbin Town Justice Jan Bohne sent a complaint about these cameras to several state agencies on June 24, where she mentioned she noticed the cameras were on 24/7 back in March. According to the complaint, she confronted court clerk Jennifer Gilston, the wife of Town Justice Joseph Gilston.
During the June 23 primary, Bohne again noticed the cameras were also tracking and recording voters in the courtroom. According to her complaint, she then called Village of Broadalbin Mayor Steven Murray, and they both watched the live security feed showing voters and their paper ballots.
Bohne also showed the live camera feed to Fulton County Board of Elections Republican Commissioner William Eschler and Democratic Commission Robin Wentworth, both of whom contacted Broadalbin Town Supervisor Joe DiGiacomo to disconnect the cameras at 4:43pm on election day and delate the video feed going back to 6am. According to DiGiacomo, the cameras lacked the resolution to view a ballot, or which candidates a person voted for.
Nevertheless, multiple people filed a complaint against Joseph Gilston with the state Commission on Judicial Conduct, the independent entity that investigates all allegations of judicial misconduct at the state and local levels. A town official also sent correspondence to the U.S. Department of Justice in mid-July because a federal race to replace retiring Rep. Elise Stefanik in Congress was on the ballot.
Onondaga County Term Limits Compromise Offered
In an effort to compromise with county legislative Democrats who believe that County Executive Ryan McMahon’s approval of a term limits ballot question was a final action (despite McMahon’s effort to clawback his approval), the county executive is offering to move forward with two competing term limit laws, one for three terms and another for four terms. According to a state precedent, if two competing ballot questions are placed before the voters, the one with the most votes would win. However, the ballot question sponsors would have to clearly indicate the purpose and sponsors of the measures.
The Democrats have not agreed to McMahon’s offer. County Elections Commissioner Dustin Czarny, a Democrat, was quoted in Syracuse.com saying that “This supposed path forward will only kick the legal ball to next year and we could potentially confuse voters and still be in court,” Czarny said on Wednesday. “None of this is affecting my decision about whether to go to court to enforce the resolution already given to me by the legislature.”
CENSUS & POPULATION
New York City’s Newest New Yorkers
The Department of City Planning (DCP) and the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs (MOIA) released the 2026 edition of The Newest New Yorkers, the most comprehensive portrait of the city’s foreign-born residents. The report, the first update since 2013, is also the first to include an interactive web version, making it easier than ever for New Yorkers to explore population trends and demographic data.
The new report finds that New York City’s immigrant population remains steady at 3.1 million, with new neighborhood hubs emerging across the five boroughs and the city’s foreign-born population continuing to grow more diverse. Immigrants continue to drive New York City’s culture and economy, with foreign-born New Yorkers making up more than one-third of the city’s population and 43% of its workforce. Nearly half of all New Yorkers speak a language other than English at home, and two-thirds of all city residents are first- or second-generation New Yorkers.
From the report’s introduction: “The Newest New Yorkers: A Statistical Portrait of Foreign Born Residents and Their Role in Shaping the City’s Population (2026 edition) provides a comprehensive portrait of immigrants in New York City. It examines the countries of origin of the city’s foreign-born, their patterns of residence, their demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, the legal paths of entry of newly admitted immigrants, the role of the foreign born in the New York region and finally assesses the demographic impact of immigrants on the city. This is the latest volume in The Newest New Yorkers series, which began in 1992 with the publication of The Newest New Yorkers: An Analysis of Immigration to New York City in the 1980s, and continued with The Newest New Yorkers, 1990-1994, and The Newest New Yorkers, 1995-1996, each focusing on newly arrived immigrants. The series has since had an expanded focus on all foreign-born New Yorkers, starting with the revamped The Newest New Yorkers, 2000 and then The Newest New Yorkers, 2013. This 2026 edition of The Newest New Yorkers builds on the preceding volumes and provides detailed analyses of updated data. It continues a tradition of providing comprehensive information on the foreign-born to policymakers, program planners, and service providers, to help them better understand the needs of a diverse population that continues to reshape the city. And for the first time, this edition includes interactive content on New York City’s Department of City Planning’s website.”
Read the entire report here: https://bit.ly/4wGthD2
Learn About the Census Bureau’s Redistricting Data Program
The DuBois Bunche Center at Medgar Evers College, in partnership with the U.S. Census Bureau, invites you to join an upcoming virtual webinar:
– Thursday, August 20, 2026
– 5:00 PM – 6:00 PM (ET) Via ZOOM
– Guest Speaker: James Whitehorne, U.S. Census Bureau
This session will introduce the U.S. Census Bureau’s Redistricting Data Program and its role in supporting fair representation through the 2030 Census. Participants will learn about the program’s mission, key initiatives, and collaboration with states to meet redistricting needs.
Topics include:
Block Boundary Suggestion Project
Voting District Project
Phased delivery of 2030 Census redistricting data
This webinar is ideal for community leaders, educators, students, researchers, public officials, and anyone interested in the intersection of Census data, voting rights, and redistricting.
Registration is free. Please register by using this registration link:
https://forms.gle/hJHV32cV46b682ka7
LEGISLATION
New Bill Would Reshape New York Independent Expenditure Committee Obligations, Sharply Increases Penalties
By: Joseph T. Burns and Eitan Genger
On July 15, 2026, New York State Senator Andrew Gounardes introduced S.10663, a bill that would amend the definition of independent expenditures (“IE”), broaden disclosure requirements for independent expenditure committees, increase public and private enforcement powers eliminate defenses to penalties, and sharply increase penalties for noncompliance.
The bill expands the definition of a regulated independent expenditure. Current Election Law reaches, within sixty days before a general or special election (or thirty days before a primary), a communication that “includes or references a clearly identified candidate.” S.10663 would preserve that clause and add two additional triggers within the pre-election window. The first captures a communication that uses “such candidate’s name, voice, likeness, or another descriptor that would be understood by a reasonable viewer to refer to such candidate.” The second, more sweeping addition captures a communication that, “regardless of whether [the communication] identifies or references a clearly identified candidate, uses language or imagery substantially associated with a candidate’s campaign, platform, background, or publicly stated positions, such that a reasonable viewer would understand the communication as designed to influence the outcome of such general, special, or primary election.” The sponsor’s memo describes these additions as intended to “close recently exploited loopholes that allow IE committees to escape the intent of the law.” The practical result is that communications currently treated as issue advocacy (and not considered independent expenditures), including thematic ads that never name or depict a candidate, could fall within the definition of a regulated independent expenditure if a reasonable viewer would understand them as designed to influence a specific election.
The bill also restructures the civil penalty regime and removes a mental state defense. Current law imposes a civil penalty of up to $1,000 on any person who “knowingly” misidentifies or fails to identify an independent expenditure as required by § 14-107(2). S.10663 divides the penalty into two tiers. In the ordinary tier, new § 14-126(3)(a) strikes the word “knowingly” and raises the cap from $1,000 to $1,000,000 per day for the violation, or the cost of the communication, whichever is greater. In the willful tier, new § 14-126(3)(b) sets a cap of $5,000,000 per day for knowing and willful violations, again subject to a cost-of-communication floor. Because the ordinary tier no longer requires knowledge, an IE committee could be liable for the base penalty without any showing that it knew of the misidentification or omission. A parallel amendment to New York City Charter § 1052(a)(15)(d)(i) raises the municipal civil penalty from $10,000 to $1,000,000 per day.
New injunctive authority is added as well. The bill would empower the State Board of Elections Chief Enforcement Counsel to “pursue injunctive relief to enjoin an unlawful disclosure or communication,” and a parallel provision of the New York City Charter grants the NYC Campaign Finance Board the same authority for violations of the City’s disclosure requirements. Under current law, enforcement occurs primarily after the fact through civil penalty proceedings. These provisions would allow regulators to seek to stop an allegedly noncompliant communication while it is still running rather than address it exclusively through post-hoc penalty assessments, meaning an advertisement could be taken down on the eve of an election.
A new private cause of action would also be created. The bill would permit an individual injured by a knowing and willful misidentification or a failure to identify an independent expenditure to sue for “actual damages, punitive damages, injunctive relief, reasonable attorneys fees and costs, and other such remedies as a court may deem appropriate.” The proposal would allow for the awarding of punitive damages, which are not commonly available under New York campaign finance provisions. The private cause of action is limited to the willful tier, so it does not attach to ordinary strict-liability violations of § 14-126(3)(a). It does, however, mean that where knowing and willful conduct is alleged, a committee could face both a state enforcement proceeding and a private suit arising from the same communication.
New York City’s “Top Three Donors” disclosure for independent expenditures is materially rewritten as well. This disclosure requirement applies to entities which make independent expenditures. On the definitional side, the bill adds defined terms for “direct donor,” “political committee,” and “political action committee,” cross-referenced to Election Law § 14-100. On the operative side, the bill provides that where a top three donor to the disclosing entity is itself a political committee or PAC, the communication must then list the top three donors to that committee. If a top donor to that committee is also a political committee or PAC, the communication must list that committee’s top donors, “and so on and so forth, until the donors of all such political committees or political action committees are listed in the manner required herein for direct donors.” The recursive rule applies to written communications, television and internet video advertisements, and radio and internet audio advertisements, in each case tied to donors who contributed at least $5,000 in the twelve months preceding the election.
For independent expenditure committees registered in New York, S.10663 would dramatically change day-to-day operations along several lines. Communications planning would need to account for the possibility that thematic or issue-focused messaging within the pre-election window could be captured by the expanded definition, particularly under the “substantially associated” prong. Disclosure workflows for New York City ad placements would need to accommodate upstream donor tracing sufficient to populate the recursive “Top Three Donors” disclosure. Compliance protocols would need to be tightened given the removal of the “knowingly” element from the base penalty, because even a good-faith misidentification would no longer be a defense at that tier. And exposure modeling for potential violations would need to reflect penalties assessed per day rather than per violation, along with the possibility of a live injunction and, in willful cases, a private suit seeking punitive damages.
The bill has been referred to the State Senate Rules Committee and, as of this writing, has not been introduced in the Assembly. Because the Legislature adjourned its regular session in June, action in 2026 is unlikely. The bill could, however, be taken up by the newly elected Legislature when it convenes in January 2027.
Joseph T. Burns is a partner in the Holtzman Vogel law firm’s New York office. Eitan Genger is a Summer Law Intern at the firm.
https://www.holtzmanvogel.com/professionals/joseph-t-burns
AROUND THE NATION
From The Redistrict Network (@RedistrictNet)
July 27: Former President Barack Obama will headline an Aug. 31 fundraiser in Martha’s Vineyard for the National Democratic Redistricting Committee as Democrats prepare an aggressive 2028 redistricting push. — @RedistrictNet [from X]
July 29: Plaintiffs supported by the National Redistricting Foundation have requested a jury trial in the Florida congressional redistricting case.
Challengers say Florida voters enshrined the Fair Districts Amendment into law, so it only makes sense that members of the public evaluate the case.. — @RedistrictNet [from X]
July 30: Senate President Ferguson and House Speaker Peña-Melnyk have filed the proposed amendment to alter congressional redistricting standards for the state of Maryland. Maryland lawmakers are scheduled to convene Aug. 3-5 for the special session. — @RedistrictNet [from X]
July 31: Senate President Pro Tem Rodric Bray won’t seek another term as Indiana Senate leader.
The decision comes after his opposition to Trump’s congressional redistricting push triggered primary defeats for six GOP incumbents. — @RedistrictNet [from X]
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/
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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 & Jason Fierman of @RedistrictNet.