Democrats accused of trying to rig elections in NY

New York Republicans allege that their Democrat counterparts are trying to make Republicans “extinct” in their state.

Republicans base their allegation on a bill Democrats passed that the GOP says might as well be called the “Republican Extinction Act.”

Signed into law in 2023, the bill made it so that certain local elections — those for county legislator, “town officers,” etc. — would be held on even-numbered years instead of odd-numbered years.

This means these elections would instead be held during the same year as state and federal elections, both of which tend to draw much higher turnouts, which is something that typically benefits Democrats.

The passage of the law prompted challenges from a large number of right-leaning New York counties that argued that the new law violates the state constitution and would violate their individual county charters.

Republicans petition New York’s highest court to take up state’s new even-year election law case https://t.co/gmvYQsKrZa

— Luke Parsnow (@coolhand_luke88) May 9, 2025

Last year, a judge ruled in their favor, overturning the law. But then the challenges were thrown out by a New York state appeals court on Wednesday.

“The five-judge appellate panel dismissed the Republicans’ claim that the new law violated the state constitution,” according to Newsday. “The judges also said there is no reason to delay implementation of the law until 2027.”

Democrats celebrated the ruling:

Victory for New York voters

A New York appellate court upheld the state’s pro-voting Even Year Election Law, which requires that local governments align some local elections with presidential and gubernatorial election years to boost voter turnout.

— SAVE AMERICA (@vietthanhsports) May 9, 2025

Will Truitt, the chairman of the Dutchess County legislature, told The Federalist that the court’s ruling was “deeply concerning.”

He maintained that the court’s decision “give[s] Albany politicians the unilateral ability to hinder local elections and overrule ratified County Charters” and “represents a significant threat to sovereignty reserved for local governments.”

“Democrats in Albany … don’t believe our local town, city and county matters deserve their own platform to be heard in our customary odd-year elections, but rather, should be tossed to the rear-end of their presidential and gubernatorial ballots,” he said.

“By doing this, local issues will be drowned out and made invisible next to the billions of dollars spent on federal and state campaigns that overtake our airwaves,” he continued.

New York Assemblyman Anil Beephan, a Republican, added that this “decision is nothing short of a disaster for democracy—and a gift-wrapped power grab for Albany’s ruling class.”

“Let’s call this what it is: the Republican Extinction Act,” he said. “Democrats wrote this law to erase local opposition by hijacking federal election cycles, manipulating turnout, and tipping the scales in their favor.”

“This isn’t about fairness—it’s about control. The court may have spoken, but voters aren’t blind. This isn’t reform. It’s rigging. We are actively exploring every legal option to appeal this ruling, because the constitutional implications are too dangerous to ignore,” he continued.

Beephan is a big believer in the idea that local elections should be mapped out by local officials.

“Local elections are their own animals, and counties have the inherent right to follow their charter,” he said. “The issues are different, the reasons why people vote are different — local elections are more focused on things happening within your community. Combining it with state and federal issues detracts from the importance of those conversations.”

He further alleged that if local elections are timed around federal elections, local candidates “are going to be suddenly answering their thoughts on abortion and other state issues when really they should be thinking about infrastructure, public safety, and local taxes.”

New York State Sen. George Borrello, also a Republican, concurred, telling The Federalist that “[t]he biggest damage that this law will cause is how state and federal elections will drown out local elections.”

“Local candidates … and [c]ounty races will not be able to compete with the rhetoric [and] the noise and the money spent on the race about them,” he said. “The issues that are important to local elections will be drowned out. That’s probably the most tragic impact.”

He went on to argue that while jurisdictions with strong GOP turnout “will probably become even redder … the same will be true in areas that have more dominant Democrat enrollment.”

“You will have more people that are focused on party affiliation than on the people they are voting for and the issues that are important at the local level,” he continued.

Senior Staff Writer
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V. Saxena is a staff writer for BizPac Review with a decade of experience as a professional writer, and a lifetime of experience as an avid news junkie. He holds a degree in computer technology from Purdue University.

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