This week- Congressional Map Challenge Ends, the SAVE Act & New York. Funding for Census 2030 Advances in Albany; Attorney General Preclearance Activity; Elections- Campaign Laws Flouted by Non-Profits; Blakeman May Lose Qualifying Funds; Around the Nation; Employment
LITIGATION
Congressional Redistricting Case Ends
Williams et. al v. New York State Board of Elections et. al
The challenge to New York’s 11th congressional district has been dismissed. To recap this case, several Democrats challenged New York’s congressional map alleging that Staten Island’s congressional district violated state constitutional provisions against minority vote dilution. A lower state court agreed and enjoined the map, adopting an interpretation of the state constitution that was broader than the federal Voting Rights Act.
In Malliotakis v. Williams, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered a “stay” (or hold) on its shadow docket, raising new questions ovet the Supreme Court intefered with an ongoing state court case. The Supreme Court failed to explain its decision, but Justice Alito’s concurrence contained language threatening the constitutionality of state voting rights protections.
With all the parties in agreement not to take the case any further, the litigation is now completed and the map enacted by the state legislature in 2024 will remain in place for this November’s elections.
LEGISLATION
The SAVE Act & How it Could Impact New York
On March 17, 2026, the Republican-backed bill, the SAVE Act, advanced to debate by a narrow 51–48 vote. However, the bill likely faces a filibuster, and given the strong Democratic opposition, is expected to fail.
The SAVE Act would require individuals to provide “acceptable” documentary proof of U.S. citizenship when registering to vote in federal elections. States would be required to establish programs to identify individuals who are not U.S. citizens and must remove those identified as non-citizens from their official lists of eligible voters. The bill creates a private right of action against an election official who registers an applicant to vote in a federal election without having presented “acceptable” documentary proof of U.S. citizenship and puts in place criminal penalties for noncompliance with the requirements of the bill.
Republicans say that this bill is merely taking the proper steps to ensure that only citizens can vote. However, as Senator Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) stated at a March 15, 2026’s press conference, the SAVE Act is really President Trump’s attempt at undermining democracy, not a voter ID bill. Trump believes he is going to lose control of the Congress in November. His solution is not to change policies that don’t appeal to the American people, but to disenfranchise tens of millions of people, from women whose married names aren’t on their birth certificates, to low-income voters, voters of color, young voters, to disabled voters.
Under this bill, all states would be required to have their voter records screened by the Department of Homeland Security. After the voter records are screened, they will disqualify tens of millions of people from voting without telling them.
The bill would require prospective voters to present documentary proof of citizenship, such as a passport, birth certificate, or enhanced driver’s license indicating citizenship status, when registering, a driver’s license would not be enough to prove citizenship. Yet fewer than half of Americans hold a passport, and access is sharply divided along income lines: approximately 64% of individuals earning over $100,000 have passports, compared to just 21% of those earning under $50,000. Birth certificates are not a reliable alternative for many either, as millions of Americans do not have ready access to an official copy, and 45 states do not issue REAL IDs.
In addition, the bill would eliminate widely used registration methods, including mail-in registration and opportunities to register at churches, on college campuses, within community organizations, when obtaining a driver’s license, or while enrolling in Social Security. Instead, individuals would be required to register in person in an election office because many states lack the resources and procedures to properly collect or request copies of photo identification along with mail-in ballots. With the most common methods Americans use to register to vote eliminated, many voters will arrive at the polls on election day only to be told they are ineligible to vote, with no available way to remedy the issue.
For New York State, the SAVE Act would completely reshape voting procedures and how people within the state vote. According to Dustin Czarny, the Democratic elections commissioner of Onondaga County, under this bill, voters would need to provide a passport or birth certificate when registering and at the polls because New York driver’s licenses do not attest to citizenship on their face. Czarny says birth certificates may or may not be qualified and many advocates don’t believe that they would be. If birth certificates are not enough to prove citizenship, this leaves passports as the only qualified method.
Contrary to what Kevin Ryan, the Republican elections commissioner of Onondaga County who argues that the enactment of the bill would not disenfranchise voters “in the slightest,” leaving passports as the only qualified method of proving citizenship means that significantly less New Yorkers will be able to vote in federal elections. While there is no specific, publicly available data telling us the exact number of residents in Onondaga County who hold a passport, with approximately 48% of Americans holding a passport, it is estimated that less than half (220,000-230,000/~460,000) of the county’s population possess one. On a larger scale, it is estimated that 12 million out of 20 million people in the State of New York have a passport. This means that eight million New Yorkers could be disqualified from voting. Many people may also be disenfranchised from voting because of the elimination of mail-in registrations and vote by mail. According to Senator Schumer, only six percent of Americans register to vote in person in an election office.
In sum, this bill may change voting procedures and how people vote within New York and around the country. Far from a voter ID bill, this measure undermines one of the core pillars of our country: democracy.
CENSUS
CENSUS 2030 FUNDING ADVANCES
Senate & Assembly Agree to Support Census 2030 Efforts
The state’s leading census advocacy coalition, the New York State Census Partnership, is urging the legislature and Governor Hochul to agree to spend up to $30 million in FY 2027 for census planning and to assist local governments and non-profit organizations in the upcoming “Local Update of Census Addresses” (LUCA) program.
The State Senate is supporting a $30 million allocation to create a state census office in the Department of State while the Assembly supports a $3 million expenditure for a census office and $20 million for census grants to support the work of local governments and non-profit and community based organizations. This represents a a major step forward from Governor Cathy’s Hochul’s original request for only $3 million for state census activity.
The Partnership supports the Senate’s allocation of $30 million and urge the Governor and Assembly to agree.
Negotiations between the Senate, Assembly, and Governor are now taking place.
The Partnership is urging Governor Hochul, Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart Cousins and Speaker Carl Heastie to support the need for $30 million in census spending this coming year. These funds will help educate New Yorkers about the census and prepare the state for the important Local Update of Census Addresses (LUCA) program — the only opportunity local governments have to review and correct the address list for the upcoming census.
Budget negotiators will determine final spending levels and align how funds will be spent and who will staff census efforts. The funding levels reflect legislation sponsored by Assembly Members Michaelle Solages (D-Nassau) and Landon Dais (D-Bronx) and Senator Jeremy Cooney (D-Monroe) that creates a state census office, a state commission, and provides funding to local governments and non-profit census advocate organizations.
VOTING RIGHTS ACT
N.Y. Attorney General’s Office Preclearance
1001- Mt. Vernon City School District (Westchester)- poll site location-under review
Two polling locations have permanently closed at the end of the 2024-25 school year. Honor Academy (Formerly Holmes School) and Parker Schools. Therefore, voters from Honor Academy will vote at Lincoln Elementary School and Parker School voters will now vote at Rebecca Turner Academy.
1121 Suffolk County Board of Elections- poll site location- under review
1164 New York City Board of Elections – poll site location- under review
1075 Rockland County Board of Elections- poll site location- granted
All submissions can be viewed at: https://nyvra-portal.ag.ny.gov/
ELECTIONS
Albany Times Union: Non-Profits Are Contributing to Political Campaigns
In the Albany Times Union, staff writer Emilie Munson reports that hundreds of non-profit organizations have made illegal campaign contributions to candidates. She writes that “the unlawful practices, which have resulted in few, if any, legal consequences for the nonprofits, have ranged from handing out literature with his opponents’ images to making direct contributions to candidates in communities that can be integral to the outcome of elections.” These contributions are not being reported in tax documents filed with the Internal Revenue Service and are in violation of state and federal statutes.
Munson further writes that “the Times Union’s analysis of state and federal databases has identified more than 1,000 contributions by at least 650 nonprofits in New York since 1999. The data, culled from the state Board of Elections and Internal Revenue Service, indicates those donations resulted in over $400,000 for candidates and political action committees engaging in state and county politics. Candidates and the PACs refunded about a quarter of that money, but spent the rest.”
Reinvent Albany has asked for an investigation by the state attorney general’s office, according to legislative director Tom Speaker.
The article appeared in the Times Union on March 22nd.
Democrats Question Blakeman Funding
Yancey Roy and Steve Hughes report in Newsday that Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman may lose access to public campaign finance matching funds, Democratic members of the state Public Campaign Finance Board assert that Blakeman and Lieutenant Governor candidate Todd Hood filed improper paperwork to qualify for state matching funds over their alleged failure to jointly certify an application to the finance board. The article appeared on March 22nd.
AROUND THE NATION- From The Redistrict Network
March 17: Illinois State Senator Graciela Guzmán, along with fellow sponsors, has filed the Illinois Voting Rights Act. https://x.com/RedistrictNet/status/2033930129856975340
March 19: Colorado Title Board advances competing redistricting proposals, as Republicans put forward their own ballot initiative to counter the Democratic-backed effort. https://x.com/RedistrictNet/status/2034656449037533247
March 19: Plaintiffs have submitted a notice of appeal to the Missouri Supreme Court in Healey v. Missouri.
The lawsuit argues that Missouri’s new congressional map violates voters’ rights to compact congressional districts. https://x.com/RedistrictNet/status/2034702617490731259
March 20: Gov. Spanberger has cast her vote in the Virginia Redistricting Referendum https://x.com/RedistrictNet/status/2035097617831506048
See The Redistrict Network on x.com for complete national redistricting coverage @RedistrictNet
EMPLOYMENT
New York City Campaign Finance Board
Associate Counsel (2 positions)
Salary Range $91,500.00 – $96,500.00
Responsibilities include but are not limited to:
– Prosecuting enforcement actions against campaigns and independent spenders;
– Appear before the 5-member Campaign Finance Board regarding formal and informal complaints and/or investigations, which includes the review and analysis of all submissions by adversaries; draft administrative determinations; issue recommendations on civil penalties and other appropriate enforcement actions; meet and correspond with campaigns regarding enforcement matters;
– Representing the agency in administrative hearings, collection actions, and Article 78 proceedings;
– Drafting and analyzing rules, legislation, and advisory opinions;
– Conducting research and drafting memoranda in response to legal inquiries; and
– Providing legal counsel to the agency on matters relating to records retention, freedom of information, privacy and identifying information compliance, procurement and contracting procedures, and other areas of law as needed.
To apply: https://bit.ly/4rQotrA
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 [email protected]
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 and Corinne Gumpman.