Another fine map mess
The decision by New York Democrats to draw egregiously biased election maps continues to create problems and confusion.
You’ll remember that courts, after finding that the districts violated state constitutional provisions against gerrymandering, have already thrown out maps that were drawn for congressional and state Senate races and approved by the Democratic-controlled Legislature and Gov. Kathy Hochul. The rulings resulted in more fair and competitive districts drawn in May by an independent master.
That was progress, although it did result in a significant inconvenience for voters. New York is left, absurdly, with two primaries because of map delays: one in June and another in August for state Senate and congressional races.
The story doesn’t end there. Late last week, a state appeals court ruled that new Assembly districts are also unconstitutional. That’s hardly surprising, given that the Assembly maps were created by the same flawed process that began when the so-called Indeerly tuletters@timesunion.com
pendent Redistricting Commission stalemated and turned redistricting over to a Legislature in which Democrats have a supermajority.
What is perhaps surprising is the court’s decision to leave the districts in place for this year, while requiring new maps before the 2024 Assembly elections. The five-judge panel was apparently unwilling to sow more election confusion just weeks before the start of voting for the first primary.
But the ruling created a new and far more significant problem. Using the maps this year will produce an Assembly whose members are elected from districts that, in the view of courts, are unconstitutionally drawn. Those elections will therefore produce an Assembly that some people could justifiably see as illegitimate, which means they may also view the laws it enacts as invalid — and challenge them in court.
What a mess. At this precarious moment for American democracy, when many voters already have diminished trust in our elections and institutions, it would obviously be terrible for New York to be governed by an Assembly that is in some very real sense improp
composed.
A better option would have been to postpone the June primary to August or delay all primaries until September. And while the court’s members ruled that doing either “is no longer feasible,” plaintiffs have taken the matter to the Court of Appeals.
So stay tuned; there may be more upheaval to come. Meanwhile, remember that this embarrassing spectacle was avoidable, unnecessary, and insulting to voters who made it clear, in approving anti-gerrymandering constitutional amendments in 2014, that they wanted this sort of nonsense to end. Instead, Democrats responded to the commission’s failure with districts that undermine democracy by stealing real choice from voters; that encourage playing-to-the-base partisanship; that use existing political power to ensure future political power.
It is in some respects poetic justice that a Legislature willing to draw districts that undermine trust may be viewed by voters with more than the usual suspicion if the current Assembly maps are allowed to stand for elections.
But it’s not a good situation for New York — or for small-d democratic legitimacy.