Redistricting

Following the decennial census, District boundaries at all levels of government are redrawn to meet equal representation of the newly acquired population numbers.

The Chautauqua County Board of Elections said now that that process has been completed, their website, www.votechautauqua.com, contains the new information related to the redistricting.

Additionally, new County Legislative Maps and Election District maps are available for the public. The Board of Elections is also capable of running lists of voters reflecting the new District lines.

Per NYS Election Law, official numbers of voters which determine signature requirements for Designating Petitions will be determined on February 21, 2023; on that date, these numbers will be added to the County Board of Elections website.

Designating Petitions for the 2023 General Election can begin to be circulated on February 28, 2023. A complete list of Offices up for Election can be found at the County Board of Elections website.

The public hearings will be held in the City Council Chambers on the second floor of City Hall. The first hearing on the local law on authorizing the use of video conferencing for public meetings will be held at 4:45 p.m. The second hearing will take place at 5:00 p.m. on the local law reapportioning ward boundary lines.

The hearings are open to the public and will be livestreamed on jamestownny.gov.

Jamestown City Council (December 19, 2022)

Jamestown City Council has approved two local laws regarding new ward boundary lines and allowing video conferencing for public meetings.

Council President Tony Dolce said the video conferencing law just codifies what the city has been doing for the last three years, “So our boards, commissions, council meetings, everything is livestreamed. Also, we now have the ability to, if we’re sick or out of town, we can zoom in on the meeting and participate in the meeting as well.”

New York State lifted restrictions on video conferencing of public meetings, but public bodies like city council, school boards, or county legislatures must adopt a local law to authorize it locally.

Under the local law, council must have the minimum number of members present to meet quorum requirements in the same physical location where the public can attend.

The livestream of the meeting must also be recorded and posted on a public website within five business days of the meeting, with the recordings remaining available for a minimum of five years.

Dolce said the local law that establishes new ward boundary lines has been approved as the part of the final steps of redistricting.

He said the city’s Reapportionment Commission took the path of “least resistance,” with few changes to existing wards, “I believe Ward 3 didn’t change at all. The other wards, I think the biggest change I think was between 5 and 6. There was a little bit of a change around Allen Park area. There was a little change between Ward 2 and Ward 1 that actually, where Brent (Sheldon) and I were kidding I’m giving back two streets that he gave to me last time ten years ago, so, to even it back out again.”

The redistricting process takes place every ten years following the Census.

Public hearings have been scheduled on both local laws for Wednesday, December 28. The hearing on the videoconferencing law will take place at 4:45 p.m. with the ward boundary law hearing taking place at 5:00 p.m. Mayor Eddie Sundquist will sign the laws following those hearings.

Jamestown City Council work session (September 12, 2022)

Jamestown City Council is looking at how to increase funding to a Senior Citizen Home Improvement program while not completely removing funding for another home improvement program.

Two resolutions being considered would add an additional $500,000 in American Rescue Plan funds to the Senior Citizen Program and move $500,000 from the Home Improvement Incentive Program. The latter would effectively de-fund the Home Improvement Incentive Program.

Mayor Eddie Sundquist said there had been over $1.8 million in requests for the senior citizen program, which had initially been funded with $500,000 of ARPA funds. He said the Home Improvement Incentive Program, which would provide cash rebates to anyone who made over $5,000 in repairs to their home, hadn’t been opened yet

Finance Chair and Council member at Large Kim Ecklund expressed concern over not taking care of senior citizens and neglecting another group, “And making sure that we’re covering everybody and not just one or two groups with ARPA funding. So the lower-income and seniors is great, but we’re missing that middle group who maybe it’s a struggling family, a single parent, doesn’t meet all those other needs. They have a job but they could use some incentives so I think, that I want to be sure of.”

Councilmember Marie Carrubba agreed, saying that people under 62 and not disabled can’t be ignored.

Council members requested an updated application list from City Comptroller John Sellstrom for the Senior Citizen Program.

A local law on the proposed redistricting of City Council Boundaries passed through committee. The City’s Reapportionment Commission voted in August to recommend a set of maps that have little change from the current ward boundaries.

The recommendation was based off of the minimal changes to Jamestown’s population within the last ten years. According to Mayor Sundquist, the local law must sit for 30 days and have a public hearing. Council will likely approve the redistricting at its October voting session.

Council President Tony Dolce said due to a number of council members and staff who will be absent, the September 19 work session for City Council has been canceled. The next meeting of the Jamestown City Council will be their voting session on Monday, September 26.

Jamestown City Council

One resolution would move $500,000 from the Home Improvement Incentive Program to the Senior Citizen Home program. Another resolution would designate an additional $500,000 in American Rescue Plan monies to the program.

According to the staff report, there were over $1.8 million in requests for the program, which had initially been funded with $500,000 of ARPA funds.

Council also will review a local law on the proposed redistricting of City Council Boundaries. The City’s Reapportionment Commission voted in August to recommend a set of maps that have little change from the current ward boundaries.

The recommendation was based off of the minimal changes to Jamestown’s population within the last ten years.

Also on the Council’s work agenda for tonight is a 3-year lease agreement with the Center for Resolution and Justice Program. The CRJ has leased space on the third floor of the Municipal Building for a number of years and the new agreement is for 886 square feet of space. Under the proposed agreement, the organization will pay $350 the first year, $375 the second year, and $400 the third year.

A resolution to accept a $10,044 grant from the New York State Governor’s Traffic Safety Committee Police Traffic Services Program will be reviewed. The funding directed at Police Traffic Services will be focused on child safety initiatives. According to the staff report, the Jamestown Police Department will run details to curtail speeding and stop sign violations.

The Housing Committee will hear an informational report on 19A Homeownership Program guidelines.

The Housing Committee meets at 6:45 with other committees meeting at 7:00 p.m. The full work session then begins at 7:30 p.m. in the Police Training Room on the fourth floor of City Hall. The meetings are open to the public with the full work session being streamed online at jamestownny.gov.

The proposed State Assembly redistricting map that challengers want thrown out

The Associated Press reports a New York appeals court is allowing state Assembly elections to proceed this year under redistricting maps drawn by Democrats but ordered lawmakers to revise the maps in time for the 2024 elections.

The maps have come under fire from Republicans and other critics who say the lines signed into law earlier this year give Democrats an unfair advantage.

Two Democrats and a Republican had asked the court to invalidate the Assembly maps and move the primary to August or September, so new ones could be drawn.

In its ruling Friday, a mid-level appeals court agreed that the Assembly maps had been drawn improperly by the state Legislature but upheld a lower court judge who had ruled in May that it was too late in the state’s election season to come up with new district boundaries.

Delaying the primary until September, the court wrote, was no longer feasible.

The court returned the case to a Manhattan judge to decide how the new maps could be revised in time for elections in 2024.

Jim Walden, the attorney representing the two Democrats and Republican who sued over the Assembly maps, praised the court’s ruling but said he would appeal the part of the decision where the judges declined to move the primary.

Jamestown Reapportionment Commission (May 31, 2022)

The Jamestown Reapportionment Commission has voted to move forward with creating a six ward map for new district boundaries.

Following discussion on whether to go with a five ward map as proposed by Democratic Committee City Chair Jim Walton, including whether to have it go to a referendum, City Council President Tony Dolce motioned to have maps designed with six wards. Alyssa Porter seconded the motion. Walton was the only no vote.

Dolce stated during discussion that reducing the number of wards would mean more work for council members and that the Internet has made it easier to contact and communicate with council members on top of council meetings being online. He said he’s receiving more communications about concerns now than in past decades despite population changes.

The commission received a “least change” map from Executive Assistant Zach Altschuler that moves ward boundaries by just a few blocks. This map, like the staff map submitted on May 24, all have populations within 1% of each other.

Ellen Ditonto expressed her desire to be sure the new wards on the maps keep neighborhoods together so they feel they have proper representation.

Ditonto also emphasized that the Commission will have to be diligent about making sure there is quorum of eligible members at meetings coming up, given that some members of the Commission have inconsistent attendance. One Commission member, Billy Torres, has not attended any of the Reapportionment meetings so far.

According to the City Charter, a member “shall lose his or her voting privilege if not present for a majority of meetings.”

The next meeting of the Reapportionment Commission will be held Tuesday, June 21.

Jamestown Reapportionment Commission member and city councilman Brent Sheldon points to an area of his Ward as he discusses redrawing Ward boundaries with his fellow commission members during the May 24 meeting. 

Jamestown’s Reapportionment Commission reviewed the initial drafts of two separate redistricting maps during its meeting on Tuesday as the 11-member panel continues its work of bringing the city’s Wards into compliance.

Commission members reviewed a draft redistricting plan that contains the current number of six wards, with all populations within 1% of one another. The commission also reviewed an alternate five-ward map – which also saw near-equal populations – after it was initially proposed two weeks ago by commission member Jim Walton.

Both maps were presented by Zach Altschuler, the mayor’s Executive Assistant who is also helping the commission by creating digital copies of the maps, based on the input of commission members.

Altschuler said he focused changing the maps by starting with a portion of Ward 3 that extended into the center of the city, just south of the Chadakoin River.

“That’s kind of what the starting point was, and that creates a whole list of downstream effects, so it was about 1,200 people in that little section there. It’s about a quarter of the ward,” Altschuler said, adding that he was then able to shift other populations into Ward 3 to return it to balance, and worked to do the same to all other Wards until they all were within 1% of one another.

Not only did the draft plan bring near-equal populations to all wards, it also utilized more of the city’s natural boundaries, including the river, railroad tracks and major roadways, as noted by commission chair Pete Johnson. “Well, the thing that jumps out right away to me about that map is just the optics test,” Johnson said. “The optics test very nicely.”

Even though the revised map presented more uniform-looking wards, it was at the expense of making large adjustments to nearly every existing ward boundary. That’s something that didn’t go unnoticed by city councilman and commission member Brent Sheldon.

“I just wanted for you to kind of tweak the wards to get them close and not do such drastic changes,” said Sheldon, who represents Ward 1. “Because there’s some pretty radical changes here. I mean, it does smooth out the wards, but I thought we were just going to do some small changes here and there, just try to equalize the population. I thought that’s what my motion was.”

Five Ward versus Six Ward Map proposals to Jamestown Reapportionment Commission (May 24, 2022)

The commission also reviewed Walton’s proposal to reduce the total number of wards to five – who again cited the city’s shrinking population and the call for smaller government as reasons for reducing the size of the city council. But not all commission members appeared in favor of the proposal, with council president and commission member Tony Dolce again saying it would only mean more work spread out over fewer council members.

Commission member Ellen Ditonto also felt that regardless of how many wards the final plan will have, the commission needs to consider more than just whether or not the boundaries follow natural boundaries.

“I like the natural boundaries, actually. I like using the train tracks and the river as a boundary, but when you look at the people who live in those areas, they’re very different. We have a lot of apartments in certain areas versus many more one-family homes in others. So, I think we need more discussion on some of those topics,” Ditonto said.

At the conclusion of the meeting, all commission members felt the draft maps were a good first step, but would like to see a better comparison. As a result, Committee chair Pete Johnson said they will meet again Tuesday, May 31 to continue the discussion.

“Our next opportunity to look at the maps, we’re going to try to hone in with greater detail on what these proposed changes might look like neighborhood to neighborhood. It doesn’t look like there’s any crazy gerrymandering type of thing going on, so from a purely eyeball perspective it’s a good looking map but the devil’s often in the details,” Johnson said.

The commission has until September 1 to finalize a plan and present it to the full Jamestown City Council for its review and approval.

The reapportionment process takes place every 10 years following the results of the U.S. Census, and the city commission is tasked with proposing new ward boundaries to get the average number of people within each ward to be as equal as possible.

Chris Jacobs, Max Della Pia

The new congressional maps approved by a Stueben County State Supreme Court Judge boosts Republican odds of capturing more seats in the U.S. House in November’s midterm elections.

Reuters reports Judge Patrick McAllister signed off on the map just before midnight on Friday, weeks after New York’s top court ruled that the redistricting plan passed by the Democratic-controlled legislature was unconstitutionally manipulated to benefit the party.

The Democratic map would likely have given the party control of 22 of the state’s 26 congressional seats this fall, serving to counterbalance similarly partisan maps passed in Republican-dominated states such as Florida, Georgia and Texas.

Republicans need to flip only five seats in November to win a majority in the House, which would enable them to block much of President Joe Biden‘s agenda.

Court-appointed special master Jonathan Cervas, who drew the new map, said in a court filing that his plan creates eight competitive districts, along with 15 Democratic-leaning seats and three Republican-leaning seats.

The new map represents a bitterly disappointing outcome for Democrats, who used their legislative majorities to push through an aggressive gerrymander. But after Republicans sued, the courts ruled that the Democratic map ran afoul of a 2014 constitutional amendment aimed at removing partisanship from redistricting.

Cervas said he had reviewed thousands of comments since the release of a draft version on Monday and made some changes, including reuniting several Black communities and Asian American communities in New York City that he had originally split.

The new 23rd District, that includes Chautauqua County, stretches from Erie to Schuyler and Chemung Counties.

Current 27th District Representative Republican Chris Jacobs of Orchard Park announced he would be running in the new 23rd district. He has been endorsed by the Erie County Republican Committee. State Senator George Borrello who had considered running in the special election to fill out the term of Representative Tom Reed, issued a statement offering Jacobs his “strongest support.”

Jacobs was first elected in 2020 and currently serves on the House Agriculture Committee, the House Budget Committee, and the House Education and Labor Committee.

For the Democrats, Max Della Pia announced Friday he is running for the special election for the 23rd Congressional District. He had previously announced his candidacy for the November midterms in the new district.

Della Pia was unanimously endorsed by the Democratic Committee Chairs from each of the counties in the district. He is a former Senate Liaison Officer for the Chief of Staff of the Air Force.

The resignation of Republican Representative Tom Reed on May 10 triggered the need to fill the vacancy with a special election. Former Reed staff member, Joe Sempolinski, announced that same day he would be running on the Republican line for that special election.

The date for the election has yet to be announced but will be held sometime between July 20 and August 8 prior to the primary date for the new Congressional districts on August 23.

Top – Proposed Congressional District Map
Bottom – Proposed State Senate District Map
(May 16, 2022)

The court appointed, special master tasked with redrawing New York’s Congressional and state Senate district maps released a draft version of both maps Monday.

City and State report the interactive version of the maps were posted online by Jonathan Cervas, a scholar on apportionment who was tasked with the job.

The House district map seems to spell bad news for New York Democrats, who could have more competitive general elections than ever. Cervas seemed to prioritize that, drawing at least eight of the state’s 26 House districts in a way that either party could be competitive in November. The lines have national implications as well. Democrats have a narrow majority in the House of Representatives currently, and are expecting difficult conditions in this 2022 midterm election.

The initial lines drawn by the Democrat-controlled Legislature and approved in late January would have given Democrats an advantage in 22 of the state’s 26 congressional districts.

The proposed 23rd District is geographically smaller, covering 7 counties compared with the current district lines that cover an 11 county region. The new district would include southern and central Erie County to the north before stretching along the Pennsylvania-border counties to Chemung and Schuyler Counties to the east.

Cervas reconfigured the state’s 63 Senate seats from the State Legislature’s original plan struck down by New York’s highest court for unconstitutional gerrymandering last month to have between 315,450 and 329,505 constitutents each.

The lines were released just before 5 p.m. Monday, about five hours after the draft congressional maps were published.

Cervas wrote, “Because of relative population loss, two districts have been shifted and there are necessary changes throughout the state to reflect population changes.”

The new Senate map reflects 38 districts that lean Democratic, 10 that lean Republican and 15 in the 45 to 55% competitive range, based on 2016 and 2020 election data.

Cervas did not take incumbent addresses into account when redrawing the congressional or Senate districts, basing the lines on standards outlined in the state constitution.

The proposed 57th district still includes all of Chautauqua and Cattaraugus Counties, and now would include Wyoming and Genesee counties. A tetris-like chunk of Allegany County is also in the proposed 57 district.

The maps are just a draft, with the final Congressional and state Senate maps due this Friday, May 20. The public has through Wednesday to submit testimony regarding the maps to Steuben County Acting Supreme Court Judge Patrick McAllister. McAllister has been overseeing the redistricting process following a successful, Republican-backed legal challenge to the maps passed into law by the state’s Democratic controlled legislature and signed by Governor Kathy Hochul. With that short timeline, observers do not expect major changes to be made to the maps.

​Primaries for U.S. House and state Senate races were pushed back to August 23, with the primary for statewide offices and state Assembly races set for June 28.

Meanwhile, there are still some question marks about how the election process will proceed. A new lawsuit filed Sunday in Manhattan Supreme Court seeks to invalidate the Assembly maps and delay the primary election until new lines could be drawn.

Two of the three plaintiffs in the case, Gary Greenberg and New York Young Republican Club President Gavin Wax previously filed legal action in the Steuben County suit to have the maps tossed, but McAllister tossed out their request last week, stating that while he agreed the Assembly maps were also drawn in violation of the constitution, it was too close to the scheduled June primary to redraw the lines.

Queens attorney and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Paul Nichols joined the two in filing the Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit.