Court order needed to fix illegal Ulster map
Dear Editor:
The Daily Freeman article, “New Ulster districts map illegal,” published October 13, 2022, tells the truth but not enough of the truth. “Ulster County Reapportionment Commission that created the new map has no intention of going back and fixing their mistake” should have included “without a court order.” Why must there be a court order? The Ulster County Charter stipulates that the final map the COR submitted to the Board of Elections has the “force and effect of law.” Should the COR break one law in order to comply with another? We think not.
Why are we in this predicament? The reason is ignorance of a change in the law in the middle of the redistricting process. Who should have known about this information and shared it in a timely manner?
First and foremost are the seven COR commissioners who operated on correct information for the first nine months and incorrect information on the second nine months of our work.
Second and third are the County Attorney’s office and County Planning office who attended every single meeting of the COR as helpful experts.
Fourth is the County Board of Elections which is the formal receiver of the COR’s final map and also a helpful critical guide during the entire process.
Fifth is the County Legislature that initiates appointments to the COR and has a stake in the success of the COR.
Sixth is the general public who were invited to participate in all aspects of the COR work.
For reasons unknown, all six stakeholder groups missed the change in the law pertaining to the interpretation of equal population in the legislative districts. The COR submitted its final map on July 20 and received correspondence from the County Attorney on September 23 that the COR final map is out of compliance with an October 2021 State law, and the map should be re-done.
The COR’s opinion is that “oops” is not a good enough reason to drop everything and completely revise the map, which already has the force and effect of law, on file with the Board of Elections. We take no joy in the plodding legal process, but it is not the end of the world for this to be resolved in court.
Sincerely,
Regis Obijiski, The writer is chair of the Ulster County Commission on Reapportionment