“My take from my conversations with people, they really don’t know… even people in the business, politicians, don’t know the district lines. You know there are little fingers that stretch through the woods and take in preference to the legislatures that drew the lines.””

Bill Rieber

The 2023 legislative districts:

Town of Bethel: Legislative Districts 1 and 6

Town of Callicoon: Legislative District 1, 5, and 6

Town of Cochecton: Legislative District 5

Town of Delaware: Legislative District 5

Town of Fallsburg: Legislative Districts 7 and 8

Town of Forestburgh: Legislative District 2

Town of Fremont: Legislative District 5

Town of Highland: Legislative District 1

Town of Liberty: Legislative District 1, 3 and 6

Town of Lumberland: Legislative District 2

Town of Mamakating: Legislative Districts 4, 7, and 9

Town of Neversink: Legislative District 3

Town of Rockland: Legislative District 3

Town of Thompson: Legislative District 1, 2, 6, 8 and 9

Town of Tusten: Legislative District 5

Local is where it’s at

Local elections tend to get less attention than national elections but are actually extremely important. Journalist and political scientist Lee Drutman talks about this conundrum. He mentions the particular impact local government has on social welfare provisions independent of Washington in this Vox article: https://www.vox.com/polyarchy/2018/5/31/17406590/local-national-political-institutions-polarization-federalism.

SULLIVAN COUNTY, NY— The November 7 election in Sullivan County is a doozy. 

Not only are all nine of Sullivan County’s legislative seats up for election, this will be the first election since all of the county’s legislative districts were changed in a 2022 redistricting process. Additionally, election districts and polling places have also been added or changed with the redistricting.

Before redistricting, some towns were in only one district. Callicoon is now split into three: numbers 5, 1 and 6. The Town of Thompson used to be split into two legislative districts, numbers 8 and 9, and is now divided into five: 1, 2, 6, 8 and 9.

“It’s ridiculous!” said Town of Thompson supervisor Bill Rieber. Thomas Bose, Town of Callicoon supervisor, echoed the sentiment. “In my opinion, I think it’s ridiculous.”

Particularly in towns such as Callicoon and Thompson, where redistricting has significantly changed the number of legislators, some people might not even know whom they’re voting for or where. According to New York State, each county legislative district must be voted for at a distinct voting location. Because of this restriction, the Sullivan County Board Of Election (BOE) has created 20 new election districts, going from 68 to 88 districts. Yellow cards were sent out in May to all registered voters indicating the legislative district and voting location. Visit voterlookup.elections.ny.gov for legislative district and polling place information.

BOE comissioners Deanna Senyk and Lori Benjamin told the River Reporter they were not included in the redistricting process and their predessors were. 

Supervisors weigh in

“They’re unrecognizable districts. I mean no one is going to drive around with a map. [Even] if you download the map, they’re incredibly difficult to look at,” said Reiber.

Bose had concerns that the confusion would reduce already low numbers for voting. “With this being an off year for elections—in other words, no Congress, no presidential, just basically local—the numbers of voters are usually lower. And I will tell you there are people that don’t know where they’re voting yet, so that’s going to lead to more problems at the election sites and some people just giving up and not voting. So I see that as a drawback at least.”

Not knowing what district you’re in makes it difficult to make an informed decision about which candidate to vote for. “The best voter is an informed voter. They’ll be fine because they know, but it’s the ones who don’t necessarily pay that much attention, yeah they’ll vote, but they don’t pay a lot of attention,” Bose said.

“It looks to me like it was done more to guarantee strong districts for the ruling majority of the legislatures rather than to make it less confusing for the general public,” said Rieber.

“When you look at the Town of Callicoon and the Village of Jeff and see that village, it looks like a sore thumb sticking out there,” Bose said, referring to the change in districts in his town. “And I have no idea what the reasoning for that is. It just seems preposterous to me why that would occur.”

In 2022 when the redistricting options were being discussed, members of the public and legislators, including Nadia Rajsz and Ira Steingart, expressed concern that the process was rushed and the maps were not satisfactory.

A little background 

County districts must have an almost equal percentage of the county population. When the new 2020 census was released in late 2021, new districts needed to be drawn to account for population change and so that the boundaries of the new districts were identified for the upcoming November 2023 election.

Main Street Communications, a media firm and redistricting consultant, created three redistricting map options and the current legislature voted 5-4, along party lines, with the Republican contingent in favor, with the exception of Joe Perrello, to adopt the third redistricting option for this election.

Sample ballots are available at www.sullivanny.us/Departments/Elections/SampleBallots. 

To check your polling location contact the Board of Elections: 845/807-0400. Check online here: https://voterlookup.elections.ny.gov/