New York redistricting: How it works, and why it matters

ALBANY — The drawing of new boundaries for New York’s 26 congressional districts is now up in the air, following a monumental ruling Wednesday by the state’s top court.

It’s the latest plot twist in the once-in-a-decade process called redistricting, and it has forced a delay in some primaries until August.

Here are key things to know:

What is redistricting?

It’s the process of redrawing election districts for Congress and state legislatures. It’s done every 10 years to adjust to population shifts reflected in the latest U.S. Census to make sure every district in, say, Congress, has approximately the same number of residents.

On the same note, each New York State Assembly district has to have a roughly equal population.

Why should anyone care about it?

Two main reasons.

First, it determines who will wind up representing your interests in the State Assembly and Senate, and in the U.S. Congress. These officeholders will vote on issues and policies you’ll likely care about, including taxes and government spending. Also, they will be the people you call for help with a specific problem or issue the federal or state government might be able to address.

If you are in an area that swings between electing Republicans and Democrats, like many Long Islanders, you could find yourself changing from, say, living in a majority Democratic district to a Republican one without ever changing your address.

Second, candidates who win election play a key role in determining which political party controls legislative bodies, particularly Congress, where the House and Senate are closely divided between Republicans and Democrats.

How so?

Every state must redraw its lines, unless it has a small population and just one House member. The power to do so is held by the state legislature. In “red” states, this means Republicans have a lot of leeway to draw the lines to their advantage. In “blue” states, such as New York, Democrats control redistricting.

They can draw the lines any way they want?

No, there are some protections against that. Generally, certain municipal boundaries can’t be split, districts must be contiguous and minority communities can’t be divided into so many districts that representation is watered down. And boundaries can’t be “gerrymandered” to give one party an overall partisan advantage in a state.

Let’s get to the lawsuit.

First, New York isn’t the only state this year with a lawsuit over the highly partisan process of legislative mapmaking.

The New York State Legislature, which is controlled by Democrats, and Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul approved new maps for New York in January. With the new map, New York went from 19 Democratic-leaning congressional districts and eight favoring Republicans to 22 Democratic and four Republican-leaning districts. The state is losing one seat in the House this year.

Republicans immediately filed suit, alleging two things — the legislature failed to follow a new redistricting process approved by voters in 2014, and the maps were drawn in a way to benefit Democrats unfairly.

The GOP also challenged maps for the State Senate but not the Assembly, in part because new maps for the lower house contained few changes.

As for procedure, an amendment approved in 2014 called for new district maps to be drawn by a bipartisan commission. Earlier this year, that body, made up of five Democrats and five Republicans, couldn't agree on one set of maps — no surprise to critics, who called the composition of the commission a fatal flaw.

The legislature voted down the commission's first set of maps. The commission was supposed to come up with a second set but never did. At that point the legislature stepped in and created its own maps. But New York's Court of Appeals, when weighing the lawsuit, determined that the legislature wasn't allowed to step in before the commission produced a second set of maps. Therefore, the legislature's maps for Congress and State Senate were null and void.

Further, the court ruled the congressional maps were drawn intentionally to discourage competition.

What happens now?

It’s in the hands of a Steuben County judge because that’s where the lawsuit originated. State Supreme Court Justice Patrick McAllister already has appointed a neutral “special master” — Jonathan Cervas, a political scientist at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, who has participated in redistricting in other states — to draw new maps for Congress and State Senate in New York.

Others, such as state legislators or think tanks, had an opportunity to propose suggestions. Comments will be taken at a hearing in Steuben on May 6, and Cervas must present his map proposals by May 16.

Then there will be a short public comment period. McAllister says he’ll finalize maps by May 20.

What about the primary elections?

New York was going to hold all its primaries on June 28. But that’s out the window because of the Court of Appeals decision.

Now, we’re looking at primaries for statewide offices such as governor, Assembly and state courts taking place on June 28. Primaries for Congressand State Senate will be on Aug. 23, McAllister ordered Friday.

How might this impact candidates who already are campaigning?

It could have a big effect. Some might drop out because the new districts don’t look so good for them. Some new candidates might opt in. Some might find they effectively don’t have a district to run in.

The sorting will begin when the maps are finalized.

By Yancey Roy

yancey.roy@newsday.com@yanceyroy