“It throws everything out the window,” said Dustin Czarny, the Democratic elections commissioner for Onondaga County. He said localities will need to wait for the state Board of Elections and the courts to set a new political calendar, which dictates the timeline for everything from petitioning to ballot access.

Czarny estimated that he would need to spend an additional $400,000 to conduct a second primary election, when his county only budgeted enough to conduct one in June.

“The counties are going to have to bear the cost,” he said. “It’s quite a heavy lift.”

https://gothamist.com/news/candidates-election-officials-left-in-limbo-after-ny-redistricting-ruling

“It’s coming at the last minute and we still don’t even know the maps and where people are running for any of these races, so this is going to be very confusing for voters,” said Dustin Czarny, an elections commissioner in Onondaga County. 

https://www.ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/ny-state-of-politics/2022/04/28/new-york-officials-assess-the-next-steps-in-redistricting-ruling-s-wake#

“In budget runs due to electoral matters, the county has to cover that cost. That is part of the county charge. In Onondaga County, this will cost us approximately $400,000 more dollars that we did not have in our budget.”

Czarny says he supports independent, citizen-led redistricting, like the process underway in the City of Syracuse, and that redrawing maps has become far too partisan. Both the state and county processes have resulted in maps that have been challenged in court.

https://www.waer.org/news/2022-04-28/tossed-maps-disrupted-election-calendar-create-chaos-confusion-for-onondaga-county

“The big takeaway is we are upending our entire political calendar. The Congressional races and the State Senate races basically start from scratch.” – Dustin Czarny, (D), Onondaga County Elections Commissioner.

https://cnycentral.com/news/local/who-you-vote-for-in-limbo-amid-political-map-chaos-in-new-york

Czarny, the Onondaga County commissioner, said it will be a challenge for election workers to prepare for holding two primary elections in a new, compressed schedule.

Absentee ballots for the August election would have to be mailed out in early July, just as election officials are working to certify the June election, he said.

“This was not something we planned for or that I welcome, but it’s something we’ll get done,” Czarny said. “This will bust our budgets. This is going to be quite a burden for every board of elections, and we’ll be putting in a lot of overtime to get it done.”

https://www.syracuse.com/politics/2022/04/nys-highest-court-turns-central-new-york-race-for-congress-upside-down.html

I appeared on Newschannel 9 shortly after the decision that tossed the NY Congressional and State Senate maps to discuss what we know and don’t know on the path forward.

https://www.localsyr.com/news/your-local-election-hq/new-york-court-rejects-congressional-maps-drawn-by-democrats/

“Dougherty’s retirement July 31 sets in motion a rare circumstance, because primary elections have already passed. But he also will leave before an Aug. 3 cutoff for this year’s ballot, guaranteeing that his seat will be filled this November, said the county’s Democratic elections commissioner, Dustin Czarny.

Because of the timing, the parties will have 10 days — Aug. 1 to 10 — to hold a meeting to select a candidate for the November ballot, Czarny said. There will be no chance to hold a primary to challenge the parties’ designees.”

https://www.syracuse.com/news/2022/04/judges-surprise-retirement-opens-2nd-seat-on-onondaga-countys-top-criminal-court.html

College campuses with at least 300 active voters will need to have a polling place. According to the Onondaga County Board of Elections, colleges like Syracuse University, LeMoyne and Onondaga Community College already have this in place. This new voting rule in New York would also prevent college campuses from being divided into multiple voting districts. In future years, districts will need to be adjusted to include as much of a college campus in one district as possible.

“You can only have 2,000 voters in an election district, so a very large college campus like Syracuse University for example may still have to have more than one district, but they’re all going to vote at the same polling place,” said Dustin Czarny, Democratic Onondaga County elections commissioner.

https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/central-ny/news/2022/04/20/how-to-vote-on-college-campus-ny-elections-2022