In 2023, the New York legislature passed a bill moving most local elections (but not New York City elections) from November of odd years, to November of even years.  A federal lawsuit against this law was filed in October 2025.  The plaintiffs have added many more co-plaintiffs since then, including many local governments.  On December 29 they filed an amended complaint reflecting the additional plaintiffs.  The first-named lawsuit continues to be the Republican Party of New York.

The case is assigned to U.S. District Court Judge Gary R. Brown, a rare judge who was nominated by both a Democratic president and a Republican president.  President Obama first nominated him, but he didn’t get confirmed by the U.S. Senate.  But then President Trump also nominated him.

The case is New York Republican State Committee v Hochul, e.d., 2:25cv-6083.

The Complaint says that combining local elections with congressional elections will mean that voters won’t pay much attention to the local races, because the races for federal and state office will soak up all the attention.  There really is no precedent that combining local elections with federal and state elections violates the Constitution. The plaintiffs rely on the First Amendment.  Here is the amended complaint.