Elections Professional and Activist
In this week’s Zoom with Czarny I speak to Christine wood from Public Citizen. We speak about the failure of federal Voting Right’s legislation, the promise and problem with the Electoral Count Act, and steps that can be taken right now to ensure American Democracy this fall. Enjoy.
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“As seats tilt heavy towards one party, the primary election starts to become more important than the general (election),” said Dustin Czarny, Onondaga County’s Democratic elections commissioner.
Czarny said it’s clear the winner of the June primary in Central New York will be considered the frontrunner in November against any Republican or Conservative Party challenger.
“The new district has more urban and Democratic areas in it than the old NY-24, which gives Democrats an advantage,” Czarny said.
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Above is my video and audio versions of my panel’s testimony. The full day’s testimony can be found here: https://www.nysenate.gov/calendar/public-hearings/february-09-2022/joint-legislative-public-hearing-2022-executive-budget
My Prepared Written remarks are below:
Testimony before The New York State Assembly & New York State Senate
Joint Legislative Budget Hearing on Local Government Officials/ General Government
Wednesday, February 9, 2022.
Dustin M. Czarny, NYSECA Democratic Caucus Chair
Thank you for letting me testify today. My name is Dustin Czarny and I am an Elections Commissioner in Onondaga County and the Democratic Caucus Chair of the New York State Elections Commissioner Association. NYSECA represents the diverse 62 counties throughout New York State. I proud of our bi-partisan Election Board system and I truly believe this is a model that should be followed nationwide. The Democratic and Republican Commissioners must work together to ensure the integrity of our election system. The built-in checks and balances helps NY avoid the partisan battles we see unfolding in other States. Commissioners must find ways to put partisan ideologies aside to meet the needs of the voters.
The Board of Elections have faced many hurdles over the last few years and has risen to the challenge. Since 2019 we have implemented election reforms such as Early Voting, Electronic Pollbooks, Universal transfer of registrations. We have administered one of the highest turnout Presidential elections in modern history. We have revamped a robust system of delivering absentee ballots to voters at the highest volume in NYS history. Implementing a cure system to prevent accidental disenfranchisement of absentee voters over technical deficiencies. We have done all that in the middle of a multi-year pandemic that challenged the very nature of our mostly in-person voting system and put the health of our election workers at risk. While no system that is made up of human workers is without its flaws, our Boards have risen to the challenge, and kept our electoral system afloat in New York.
In 2022 and beyond there are more reforms the NYS Legislature has charged our boards with implementing. This year we will take on the task of canvassing absentee ballots before Election Day, ending New York’s infamous run of being last in the nation to certify our results. We will expand Early Voting opening more sites than the last few years. In the next few years we will take on online and automatic voter registration which will swell our voter rolls and make it easier for New Yorkers to register and update their voter registration. The Democratic caucus of commissioners looks forward to these challenges as they will improve the lives of voters and participation in our Electoral system.
I would be remiss however not to point out that with these added burdens will come added burdens. The expansion of Early Voting will mean more inspectors with more pay as minimum wage increases and expanded weekend hours add to our costs. We will need to bring in additional personnel to conduct the early canvass of absentees before Election Day as our regular personnel are tied up with Early Voting and Election Day preparation. We need additional equipment such as high speed scanners, sorting equipment, and rolling our electronic poll books on Election Day as well as on demand ballot printers. Additionally we have an aging fleet of Election Day scanners that is in desperate need of replacement.
These added costs are met with skepticism and resistance from our host counties. The politicization of our electoral process is not just something happening in other states, it has been happening on the local level as well. Host counties made up of elected leaders who are hostile to these voting reforms refuse to give more than minimum funding to our Boards of Elections. This resistance is in part because of our independence and in part because of the national ideological battle over the right to free and fair elections. Too often the Election Boards are after thoughts for county budgeting and they are resistant to our requests to cover the added duties put upon us by State Government.
The Executive budget comes along way for providing the necessary funding for the New York State Board of Elections. This is righting many years of misery when it comes to funding the State Board of Elections. It is a welcome and important step as the State Board of Elections will be a vital partner for County Boards. The State Board of Elections will shoulder the burden of Online and Automatic voter registration as well as tracking of our absentee ballots and the Campaign and Public Finance systems. However the Executive Budget only appropriates old unspent Aid to Localities and Capital Funding will help some counties who are behind on upgrading their systems. However we need new and substantial funding for all counties going forward.
New York State must play a role in funding elections at the County level. The burdens that County Boards face in 2022 are similar to those we faced in 2019. We need similar funding. In 2019 we received $10 million in Aid to Localities and $25 million in capital funding. This level of funding will allow for our boards to hire personnel to accomplish the absentee staffing and staff expanded Early Voting centers. The Capital funding will allow us to expand Electronic Poll Books for use on Election Day statewide as well as purchasing technological advances for canvassing and reporting Absentee results alongside Election and Early Voting results in a timely manner. It will also allow many counties to start replacing their aging Election Day scanners as next generation machines are set to be certified by the New York State Board of Elections over the next 6 months.
We must also protect our Board of Elections from interference from local elected officials. Often the existence of state funding is a reason for county offices to us e that instead of committing the appropriate amount of local dollars. This often results in no net revenue for local board of elections to accomplish their added burdens. We need to establish minimum staffing levels tied to voter registration rolls for each county Board of Elections. We need mandates for full time commissioners as our political calendars demand input and guidance year round. These guidelines can be established and monitored by our State Board of Elections to maintain the independence we need of our Boards of Elections while assuring that counties and New York State give the vital resources for us to accomplish our mission.
Thank you very much for this opportunity to testify today. I hope that we can count on the legislatures support in defending our democracy here in New York.
Dustin M. Czarny
Commissioner (D), Onondaga County
Democratic Caucus Chair, NYS Elections Commissioner Association.
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Welcome back to #wonkywednesday. Each week I take a deep dive into the election and registration data that makes up Onondaga County. Every ten years we change the shape of our districts that represent us on the US Congressional, NYS Senate, and NY Assembly lines. After the failure of the NYS “Independent” Redistricting Commission to draw a consensus map prompted the NYS legislature to take over the redistricting process this week. With Democrats having two-thirds control of each chamber and the Governor’s mansion this is the first time in several generations that they exhibit total control over the redistricting process. This week I am investigating the changes in the Assembly districts in Onondaga County.
Since 2020 the 126th Assembly District has been represented by John Lemondes (R). He won election in 2020 after the retirement of longtime serving Assemblyperson Gary Finch. The Old #NY126 spanned 4 counties and with portions of Cortland, Chenango, Cayuga, and Onondaga County. The new #ad126 removes the Cortland and Chenango portions of the districts, adds Lysander, Pompey, Fabius, & Tully in Onondaga And the Cayuga portion removed the Southern parts and went through the middle of Cayuga County. This district actually got more compact in redistricting increasing its compactness score from 17.1 to 24.6.
The 126th Assembly District has traditionally been GOP leaning district. Assembly member Finch won his election in 2018 by 13.0 points. Likewise Lemondes won his election in 2020 by 13.6 points. This is despite an electorate leaning towards Democrats. Trump won this district by 2.6 points in 2020. The new district does make this district more Democratic. If the 2020 election were held in the new district Biden would have won this district by 2.4 points. While a 5 point swing is significant the margins of recent victories by the Assembly members in the district suggest that swing may not be enough to tilt the district to the Democrats. Of note though is that many of the towns in Onondaga County and the City of Auburn in the district are trending more and more Democratic over the last ten years. If that trend continues this new district could become competitive with the right candidate.
The 127th Assembly district has been represented by Assemblyman Al Stripe from 2006 to 2010 and then from 2012 until today. This district has long been seen as a swing district with Republicans up until recently outnumbering Democrats. The old #AD127 circled clockwise around Onondaga County. It included the Towns of Clay, Cicero, Manlius, Pompey, Fabius, and Tully. In the new maps #AD126 lost Pompey, Fabius, and Tully and replaced it with the Town of Cazenovia in Madison County. This makes the district slightly less compact dropping from a compactness score of 18.5 to 16.0.
Despite the closeness in registration Al Stirpe since 2012 has had relatively easy re-election campaigns, He soundly beat Nick Paro (R) in 2018 by 15.7 points. He also beat Mark Venesky supervisor of Cicero by a solid 8 points. President Biden won this district by 10.6 points in 2020. The new district is a tad more Democratic leaning as President Biden won the new district by 12.0 points. Though Al Stirpe has had competitive races, namely the margin thin loss in 2010, since then he has relatively won reelection easily since 2012 and this district gets a little more Democratic for him in the future.
#AD128 has been represented by Pamela Hunter (D) since the retirement of former Assembly member Sam Roberts in 2015. This district encompassed the inner city and East side of Syracuse while also representing the towns of Salina, Dewitt, and Onondaga. The new district remains virtually unchanged with only a few small city election districts being added to it for population balance. The compactness score of this district is 15.1.
Pam Hunter had no opposition in 2018. In 2020 she was able to defeat a relatively unknown GOP candidate by 28.5 points. Biden won the old district by 24.8 points and the small changes to the new district would not change that. She is one of the few candidates that exceeded Biden’s performance in her district.
#AD129 has been represented by William Magnarelli (D) since 1998. This district snakes around the City of Syracuse going counter-clockwise from Eastwood, to Sedgewick, to Little Italy, down to Tipp Hill, Strathmore, the lower parts of the Valley and then up into Syracuse University. It also adds the Towns of Geddes and Van Buren. The new district is again virtually unchanged with a few inner city and eastside districts given back to #Ad128. The compactness score of this district went from 13.1 to 13.0 and is rated the least compact of the Onondaga County Assembly Districts.
Bill Magnarelli was contested in 2018 and 2020 and won handily. A whopping 50.4 point win beating Edward Ott in 2018. He then beat another Edward, Edward Webb by 31.1 points in 2020. Biden won this district by 24.2 points in 2020 and the new district remains unchanged. This seat in performance may be one of the safest Democratic seats in Onondaga County. Bill Magnarelli is the other area elected that outpaced Biden and there is no reason to believe this seat is in danger of being challenged by the GOP anytime soon.
Onondaga County did lose one Assembly district during the redistricting process. #AD120 represented by Assemblyman Barclay (R) the minority leader in the NY Assembly. The only portion of this district that was in Onondaga County was the Town of Lysander as the district snaked up to most of Oswego County and a portion of Jefferson County. The new district removes Lysander but unites all of Oswego together with even more towns in Jefferson and a few in northern Cayuga. Because this district is no longer in Onondaga County I am not doing an analysis of it but I wanted people to see how this district changed and was removed from Onondaga County.
That is it for this week. As with last week a big shoutout to The Graduate Center at CUNY professor Steven Romalewski and his team for putting together an amazing resource to quickly analyze these changes. Our Biden ratings and Compactness scores were found there. Go to newyork.redistrictingandyou.org and explore your Congressional, Assembly and Senate maps. Next week I will dive into the census data and voter registration rates for Onondaga County.
In this week’s Commissioner in a Car I take on what Boards of Elections have to do over the next two weeks to get ready for redistricting. I also talk about the state of New York redistricting and what lawsuits are out there, and which ones are not and what it means for the March 1 petition start.
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I appear with other guests to talk about the impact of the new congressional maps on New York State and CNY after redistricting.
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In this week’s Zoom with Czarny I sit down with CNY Solidarity Coalition’s Tom Keck. Professor Keck and I discuss the twists and turns of the SCOTUS vacancy created by Justice Stephen Breyer and any hopes for SCOTUS reforms. Enjoy.
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The state’s process started with a bi-partisan commission approved by voters in 2014. But the job was handed to lawmakers after it failed to agree on a single set of maps. Czarny says the commission couldn’t be called independent.
“The word ‘independent’ was not part of the ballot proposal because of a court ruling that it was not independent. It is actually a selection of political appointees. That commission was designed to fail. It was set up to avoid a truly independent citizen-led redistricting commission.”
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Welcome back to #wonkywednesday. Each week I take a deep dive into the election and registration data that makes up Onondaga County. Every ten years we change the shape of our districts that represent us on the US Congressional, NYS Senate, and NY Assembly lines. After the failure of the NYS “Independent” Redistricting Commission to draw a consensus map prompted the NYS legislature to take over the redistricting process this week. With Democrats having two-thirds control of each chamber and the Governor’s mansion this is the first time in several generations that they exhibit total control over the redistricting process. This week I am investigating the changes in the Congressional and New York State Senate districts coming to our home.
Since 2014 our county has been represented by John Katko (R) in the 24th Congressional district. This district was seen as one of the top swing districts across the country as the district was tilting Democrat registration wise and before Katko the district had changed parties in four straight cycles. In the new district now labeled #ny22 the heavily GOP Wayne County and Oswego County portions were removed along with the north half of Cayuga Count. In its place was portions of Seneca, Schuyler, Ontario, Tompkins, Cortland, and Madison Counties. The new district unites many of the cities of Central New York including Syracuse, Oneida, Auburn, Geneva, Cortland, and Ithaca.
The new #NY22 is demonstrably more Democratic than the previous incarnation. John Katko was able to buck the voter registration and performance of this district winning by 5.3 points in 2018 and 10.1 points in 2020. This is despite Joe Boden winning the old #ny24 by 9.2 points. Democrats get a significant gain in the new district though. If the 2020 election were held in the new district Biden would have won, it by 18.6 points. Past performance is not indicative of future election results but comparing the same election does give us a sense of how this district swung to the Democrats during redistricting. Katko has decided not to seek another term which will put the GOP at even more of a disadvantage as he was able to really outperform other GOP candidates because of his perceived moderation.
Onondaga County gained a new Senate district during redistricting moving from 2 to 3 Senate districts inside its borders. The 47th Senate District represented by Senator Richard Griffo’s (R) district used to wind north from Oneida through Lewis and into St. Lawrence to the border with Canada. In the new district Griffo loses the lower half of Oneida and the City of Utica as well as the Lewis and St. Lawrence counties and stretches West into Oswego County to pick up both Lysander and Cicero in Onondaga, two of the more GOP friendly towns in Onondaga County as well as the most northern part of Madison County. It is a less compact district than before, as CUNY lowered its compactness score from 43.7 to 35.1.
This district was drawn in 2012 to be a heavy GOP district and nothing is more evident than Senator Griffo never faced opposition in two heavily Democratic years in 2018 and 2020. In fact, despite Biden doing tremendously well in New York in 2020, he performed miserably in the old #SD47 losing it 17.6 points. The redrawing of this district did not help Democrats at all. The addition of reliably GOP towns of Lysander and Cicero in Onondaga County as well as Oswego County made this a more GOP friendly district. Trump would have won the new district in 2020 by 19.4 points. It is a more compact district than before with CUNY rating it at 33.3 on compactness as opposed to 16.6 before.
Senator John Mannion is the current Senator in the #SD50 district. This district drawn specifically for former Senators DeFrancisco and Antonacci has the Northeastern portion of Cayuga county with a portion of the City of Auburn along with most of the Towns of Onondaga County circling the City of Syracuse from Clay circling counterclockwise around to Dewitt and Manlius. It plunges into the Northside of Syracuse just enough to get DeFrancisco’s old house on the North side. The new district loses the towns of Ira, Cato, and Brutus in Cayuga and picks up the entire City of Auburn and Town of Owasco. In Onondaga County it loses the towns of Lysander, Spafford, Otisco, and Onondaga but gains the Town of Salina as well as the entire North side and Tipp Hill and Strathmore sections of the City of Syracuse.
In general, this district lost GOP friendly rural territory and replaced it with more friendly urban and suburban districts. In 2018 John Mannion lost this district by 1.9 points to Senator Antonacci. In 2020 with Antonacci having moved to a judgeship, he won a hotly contested race by five points. He did underperform Biden by eight points who won this district by thirteen points. The new district would perform better adding 4.6 points to Biden if he were to run in it in 2020. There is a slight increase in compactness in the new district moving from 17.9 to 18.2.
Finally, we come to Rachel May’s (D) Senate district. Senator May won this district in a surprise upset in a primary against long time Senator Dave Valesky (D-IDC) in the anti IDC wave of 2018 that brought united Democratic government to New York. The #sd53 was comprised of Cicero and Salina, most of the City of Syracuse, and the SE corner of towns in Onondaga County as well as all of Madison County and two towns in Oneida. The new district Loses Cicero and Salina, the northwest corner of Syracuse and northern most portion of Madison. It adds Otisco and Spafford and stretches south to the City of Cortland in Cortland County and Northeast through Oneida into the City of Utica. The defining feature of this new district is it contains well over a dozen institutes of higher learning in this newly formed district for the former college professor.
Senator May’s district got a little worse for her in performance by the metrics and it could be that NYS Dems have looked to her past performance and banking on that strength in the new district. May won by 13.8 points in 2018 and 10.1 points in 2020. Biden won her district by 18.6 points in 2020 and would have won the new district by 16.8 points. While this is a small decrease it does not seem to change the nature of this district as a solidly blue district. It did get slightly more compact going from 17.9 rating to 18.2.
One last note is that while most of these districts are becoming more Democratic, that is not in and of itself evidence of a Democratic Gerrymander. In Congress New York lost a seat in the Census going from 27 to 26 seats. This along with the shifting of population downstate has made upstate a subject of a redrawing of districts. Though we are not losing a seat in the Senate the same downstate trends are affecting the Senate as traditional underrepresentation of NYC by the GOP is reversed by Democrats along with the significant downstate population growth versus upstate loss. Finally, New York, including upstate, has gotten more Democratic over the last ten years. This is a pro-Democrat drawn redistricting in New York, but many factors are contributing to this not just the makeup of the legislature. wing the maps. Next week we are onto the Assembly maps, stay tuned.
P.S. A big shoutout to The Graduate Center at CUNY professor Steven Romalewski and his team for putting together an amazing resource to quickly analyze these changes. Our Biden ratings and Compactness scores were found there. Go to newyork.redistrictingandyou.org and explore your Congressional, Assembly and Senate maps.
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Today I talk about the congressional maps that just dropped in New York State. I talk about the new district that I am nicknaming the Center City district encompassing all of Onondaga County and portions of Schuyler, Ontario, Cayuga, Madison, Tompkins, and Cortland County. This unites the cities of Syracuse, Oneida, Auburn, Geneva, Ithaca, and Cortland as well as their surrounding areas. I also give a little history of how we got to the NYS legislature drawing these maps instead of non partisan citizen led redistricting which I continue to advocate for. Enjoy.
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Dustin M. Czarny