Kathy Hochul
Governor Kathy Hochul has signed legislation to ensure county redistricting is done in a fair, non-partisan, and non-discriminatory manner.
The bill amends municipal home rule law to require county redistricting to follow specific guidelines requiring districts be drawn to be nearly equal in population, contiguous and not to favor incumbents or parties.
After a 1991 court decision, there have been efforts to modify the standards by which county legislative lines are drawn.
Hochul issued a press release saying, “All too often, county governments have attempted to manipulate redistricting for the political advantage of the party in power. This bill would ensure an end to that practice, and promote fair and non-partisan drawing of lines based on specific guidelines consistent with the constitution.”
In the years since the bill was originally introduced in 2002, the consensus on which standards should govern redistricting have evolved. Several of the standards included in the bill were part of the 2014 amendment to the New York State Constitution, which applied redistricting standards to the drawing of congressional and state legislative districts. By adding these standards to municipal home rule law, they would also apply to the drawing of county legislative districts.
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