On the evening of February 7, the leaders of each house of the New York legislature introduced identical bills changing the date of special elections. Senator Andrew Stewart-Cousins introduced S4588, and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie introduced A4881.

Current law says that when a vacancy occurs in the U.S. House, the Governor has ten days to call a special election, and the special election must be within 70 to 80 days after the date is set. The bill is difficult to understand, but seems to allow the Governor to postpone the special election until the November election date in that year. New York has partisan elections in November of all calendar years, even and odd.

Republican Comgressmember Elise Stefanik of New York is expected to be confirmed as Ambassador to the United Nations. Her district, the 21st, is strongly Republican, and it is extremely likely the special election will choose another Republican. Everyone seems to believe that the motivation for the bills is to keep the state vacant for additional time.

The bills’ preamble says, “The legislature finds that New York’s current system of filling federal and state elected office vacancies places undue financial and operational burdens on local boards of elections and exacerbates voter confusion and fatigue by asking voters to frequently participate in elections throughout the year, thus resulting in lower turnout and decreased participation in the electoral process.”