NY faces packed election calendar

Hundreds of thousands of Long Islanders could get the rare chance to cast a half-dozen public ballots this year.

First come village elections, on March 20.

On April 24, New York's Republicans vote in their presidential primary.

School boards are up May 15.

June 26 is the tentative date for congressional and U.S. Senate party primaries that in prior years would have occurred in September.

Still unsettled is when primaries for state legislative seats will take place. But despite resistance from Democrats and good-government organizations, the state Senate's majority Republicans have been talking about August or September, perhaps, just for those primaries.

The general election falls on Nov. 6. Dates for nonpresidential primaries remain a nagging issue to be worked out in Albany, along with redistricting and the new state budget, potentially in one big agreement.

For the moment, consider the still-fluid election calendar.

U.S. Judge Gary Sharpe declared on Jan. 27 that state lawmakers had "failed to find the political will" to comply with a 2009 law mandating timelier distribution of ballots to overseas and military voters -- which means holding the primary at least several weeks earlier than the traditional mid-September date. Sharpe set the last Tuesday in June.

But the decision doesn't cover primaries for state Assembly, state Senate, state and local judgeships, or municipal offices. Despite arguments from Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo that extra primaries are too expensive -- and from other Democrats that August polling means depressed turnout -- Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre) calls August a good option.

Legally, federal and state legislative primaries could be held in August since Sharpe wrote that his ruling on federal races "by no means precludes New York from reconciling their [sic] differences and selecting a different date" as long as it is early enough for overseas voters.

Speculation over partisan motive abounds in this clash over primary dates.

One Democratic operative privately suggests Senate Republicans may prefer August because it would allow them more time to reach a redistricting deal with Cuomo -- and thus avoid having a court impose district lines on them.

But a Republican operative insists Skelos & Co. dislike a June primary largely because it means getting qualifying petitions out in March -- just as a budget is supposed to be settled. (For that matter, June marks the traditional end-of-session when lawmakers are expected to be in Albany, not in the districts campaigning.)

For Democrats in most New York City legislative districts, winning a primary is tantamount to election. Low turnout, as expected in August, tends to make results less predictable -- helping explain why Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) & Co. preferred June for all nonpresidential primaries.

Other benefits also may accrue to those who settle nominations months before the election, such as having a longer period for fundraising in a competitive general election.

For the moment, the six-ballot year remains quite possible, without even counting various special-district elections scattered throughout the map and calendar.

Talk about voting early and often.