Let's guard against election-system uncertainty

By design, our county, state and federal election boards are carefully engineered to be bipartisan. The major political parties that jointly staff New York boards with their patronage appointees cancel out each other’s advantages and guard against trickery. Republicans and Democrats check and challenge each other’s activities before, during and after an election.

But when it comes to the mundane mechanics of administering elections — ideally a nonpartisan, technical task — these operations have been less than efficient and sophisticated.

The Republicans’ push to upend the true results of the 2020 election and its aftermath left lingering distrust. To some Democrats it was an echo of the suspicion and invective wrought by the Bush v. Gore mess in Florida 20 years earlier.

Any disruption in our annual electoral routines threatens to be vexing and nerve-wracking for the public, as well as the candidates and the parties. This season, a measure of special worry is in order.

MAIL-IN, TOUCH-SCREEN ISSUES

It has yet to be known if a new law allowing mail-in ballots for anyone who asks will withstand a pending court challenge. The special election in the 3rd Congressional District to replace expelled Rep. George Santos takes place Feb. 13, so a degree of uncertainty looms.

State Republicans sued in September to void the law, signed last year by Gov. Kathy Hochul. Supreme Court Justice Christina L. Ryba in Albany has denied their request to stall the rollout of universal mail-in voting until a final decision is made in that case. Her decision is being appealed, posing the possibility that a ruling intended to apply to the state’s other congressional contests in the fall could disrupt current mail-in plans for the CD3 special.

There is also suspense surrounding the introduction of a new voting technology after this year. Last August the state Board of Elections approved the use of touch-screen machines opposed by some voters’ rights groups. It would be up to the counties to purchase them if they so choose.

For the longer term in New York, a sweeping change in electoral operations is in store.

A brand-new New York law mandating that state, county and town elections be held in even-numbered years has both major parties eyeing 2026, when it takes full effect. Fortunately, this shift won’t affect this high-tension presidential and congressional year.

But with the state’s dominant Democratic Party having pushed the law as a way to boost its own turnout, there was little prior discussion or debate of the details.

Can the overall system accommodate the longer ballots that must include choices at every level? Will election staffs be expanded and shrunk given a dramatically different workload in alternating years?

These unanswered questions are especially glaring since the bipartisan New York State Association of Counties, whose members will need to administer the change, argued strenuously against the measure. So did the state’s Association of Towns and even some Democratic officials. They said all their local candidates will be buried on the ballot below the more widely hyped state and federal races.

The odd-to-even-year shift on Long Island will have its first impact on county legislators and town board members most recently elected to two-year terms. Those who won office in November 2023 serve the full two years; then they can seek reelection next year, in 2025, but only for a one-year term.

In 2026, statewide races will command the top of the ballot and for the first time appear along with county and town candidates running for a full two-year term.

RESETTING ELECTION CLOCK

This will reset the clock to a perpetual even-year cycle. Of Long Island’s two counties, Nassau has more of a preponderance of local two-year terms. The town supervisors of Hempstead, Oyster Bay, and North Hempstead will be affected, as well as all 19 county legislators. In Suffolk, the same one-year abbreviation would apply to town supervisors who serve two-year terms — East Hampton, Riverhead and Shelter Island.

Municipal offices with four-year terms work differently. If elected in an odd year, in 2023 or 2025, these officials serve the usual period. Then, the next election for that job would be for a one-time-only three-year term.

So if Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman chooses to run for a second term, he would do so as first anticipated in 2025. But then, Blakeman’ job will appear on the ballot again in 2028, not 2029.

Accordingly, for the Suffolk County executive post, in which Ed Romaine is the new incumbent, the next two elections will take place in 2027 and then 2030.

The new even-year law will not apply to such state offices whose terms are set in the state constitution such as county clerks, sheriffs and district attorneys, or for city offices such as those in Long Beach and Glen Cove. Nor will it affect odd-year judicial elections.

Lawmakers still must do what they should have done before these changes were authorized — hold hearings and describe in depth how all of it will work. If glitches occur, the reasons for them should be made clear.

Public faith in the order and reliability of the vote has become an important intangible — as it has for other institutions.