BATH, N.Y. (CN) — The newly redrawn New York state Assembly districts may be gerrymandered but it is now too late to delay primary elections, a judge tasked with overseeing the state’s messy electoral redistricting maps ruled Wednesday.
“To permit intervention at this time would create total confusion,” Judge Patrick McAllister in Steuben County wrote, finding that there is not enough time to draft new lines before the scheduled June 28 primaries.
Judge McAllister wrote in 5-page opinion issued Wednesday that, even though he agreed that the Assembly maps “were unconstitutional in the manner in which they were enacted,” the issue at hand was whether it is timely at this point in the case to permit intervention by New York Young Republican leader Gavin Wax and Albany-area activist Gary Greenberg.
“Not only do intervenors, Greenberg and Wax, want new Assembly maps, but they are asking the court to invalidate all the signatures previously gathered, create new time periods for gathering signatures after new maps are enacted, change the signature requirements for both primary and independent petitions, etc.,” the judge wrote, noting that overseas primary ballots for the June 28, 2022 , primary are scheduled to be mailed out this week in just two days.
"So the judicial nominating conventions would have to be pushed back until some time in September making it difficult, if not impossible, for their work to be completed so candidates can be placed on the November ballot," the opinion states. "The court finds the motions to intervene ... to be untimely and to permit them to intervene at this time would be extremely burdensome to the court and existing parties. Therefore, their motion to intervene is denied."
Two weeks ago, New York’s highest court voided efforts advanced by the state Legislature that would have given Democrats a clear edge in 22 of the state’s 26 congressional districts.
The finding of potential gerrymandering triggered a two-month delay of a pair of primary elections New York was set to hold, adjourning New York's state Senate and congressional primaries until August.
Judge McAllister will draw up the new maps with input from Jonathan Cervas, a postdoctoral fellow at Carnegie Mellon University’s Institute for Politics and Strategy.
The pair heard input from voters last week at the Steuben County Courthouse, in an upstate town called Bath, roughly 60 miles south of Rochester.
Meanwhile, Cervas is expected to present the retooled congressional district maps on Monday, May 16, and Judge McAllister will issue a follow-up ruling on those new lines "on or before May 20, 2022," his clerk told Courthouse News on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, Senior U.S. Circuit Judge Gary Sharpe, of the Northern District of New York, ordered the state’s primary for the U.S. House of Representatives to be held in August “to avoid a chaotic situation for all New York voters” and facilitate the congressional redistricting process.
New York was apportioned 26 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives after the 2020 census, one fewer than it received after the 2010 census.
The New York state Senate is made up of 63 senators elected from 63 districts.
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