NY GOP Takes Even-Year Election Law Challenge to Federal Court

New York Republicans on Thursday filed a federal lawsuit challenging a state law that moves county and town elections to even-year cycles, just two weeks after the state’s highest court upheld the statute.

The New York Republican State Committee and three GOP-leaning counties who were also plaintiffs in the state court case say the law violates the US Constitution and exacerbates burdens on minority communities in violation of the Federal Voting Rights Act.

“Cloaked in the rhetoric of increased ‘voter turnout,’ the law is a calculated attempt to centralize top-of-the-ticket political power at the expense of local democracy,” says the ...