For those who pay at least a glancing attention to politics, you may know the rhythm of the four-year election cycle built around the major offices on the ballot. Start with 2020 – presidential election along with Congress and the State Legislature. 2021 – mayoral election along with dozens of local offices. 2022 – Gubernatorial election along with Congress and the State Legislature. 2023 – Erie County Executive along with dozens of local offices.
Last year Albany decided to change that. Legislation was approved to significantly change the election cycles in New York State concerning most county and town offices. The general intention is to run nearly all county and town elections in the same years that gubernatorial and presidential elections are held. The sponsors of the law's stated purpose was to increase voter participation in county and local elections since races for governor and president attract far greater participation. Opponents of the law suggest that it will bury local election contests at the bottom of the ballot where voting interest is sometimes reduced.
For sake of reference, here are the total turnout numbers in Erie County during the past four-year cycle:
- 2020 – 476,913 votes
- 2021 – 237,182
- 2022 – 346,087
- 2023 – 204,883
This is how the law will work:
"a county elected official, or town elected official… elected and serving their term as of January 1, 2025 shall complete their full term as established by law. Provided, however, that if the completion of such full term results in the need for an election in an odd-numbered year after January 1, 2025, the county or town official elected at such election shall have their term expire as if such official were elected at the previous general election held in an even-numbered year."
In Erie County the county executive, county comptroller, county legislators, and all town offices would be required to switch to elections in even-numbered years. This means that county legislative and town offices with two-year terms that are up for election in 2025 will be elected for a term of one year, followed by an election for a normal term of two years beginning in 2026. The law will require candidates for Erie County comptroller and four-year term town offices such as supervisor with terms that are up in 2025 to run for three-year terms before converting back to four-year terms is 2028. The same is true for the office of Erie County executive and certain town offices having four-year terms expiring in 2027. In that year candidates will run for three-year terms before converting back to four-year terms in 2030. The New York State Association of Counties confirmed this interpretation of the law to Politics and Other Stuff.
Confusing? Here is some additional information that adds to the confusion.
The law does not apply in New York City. The positions of county clerk, sheriff, district attorney or the various county judge positions do not need to be held in even-numbered years; in Erie County the County Clerk and the District Attorney already run in even-numbered years. Offices in the cities of Buffalo, Lackawanna, and Tonawanda are not affected and would continue to run elections in odd-numbered years. The sheriff, whose term is up in 2025, would continue to run for a four-year term in odd-numbered years. Various judicial positions including state Supreme Court have terms expiring in nearly every year. All of this would mean that countywide election operations would continue in odd-numbered years throughout the county regardless of the other changes.
The law is on the books but there have been several lawsuits filed in the state seeking to strike it down. None of the suits has reached a hearing or decision stage yet. Stay tuned.
The Buffalo Bisons – read all about it
As noted in a previous post, coverage of Buffalo Bisons baseball is lacking in the Buffalo News. Some of that, I suppose, is unavoidable when you print the paper 180 miles away and copy deadlines come early. Nonetheless there are fans of the team who might want to know more but do not find anything available in the daily-distributed but two-day information-delayed newspaper.
The News, in small print, lists the Bisons' International League standings from a couple days ago. There are never box scores, or hitting or pitching records, or the upcoming schedules, although the latter appears occasionally in ads that the team purchases. As a public service I am providing links to team information, current as of yesterday, directly from the team's website.
Standings: Standings | Bisons (milb.com)
Team roster: Roster | Bisons (milb.com)
Box scores: on this link go to the game you want to see; click on diamond symbol on the right; slow loading Buffalo Bisons Schedule | Schedule | Bisons (milb.com)
Team hitting: MILB Stats | MILB Team Stats | MILB Leaders
Team pitching: MILB Stats | MILB Team Stats | MILB Leaders
Upcoming schedule: Buffalo Bisons Schedule | Schedule | Bisons (milb.com)
How to buy tickets: Buffalo Bisons Tickets | Bisons (milb.com)
Go Bisons!
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