Westchester County Town Settles New York State Voting Rights Act Lawsuit
By: Joseph T. Burns
Mt. Pleasant, a town in Westchester County, New York, has agreed to settle a long running lawsuit brought under the New York State Voting Rights Act (“NYVRA”). The settlement comes just weeks after the Town of Newburgh in Orange County resolved a separate NYVRA action and indicates that municipalities across New York State may see an increase in NYVRA-related litigation in the years ahead.
Enacted in 2022, the NYVRA significantly expanded the legal tools available to challenge local governments’ electoral systems under state law. Among its key provisions, the law establishes a vote dilution cause of action that authorizes individuals as well as the state Attorney General to challenge a local government’s electoral system on the grounds that it impairs the ability of a protected class of voters to participate equally in the political process and elect representatives of their choice. The NYVRA also contains a preclearance requirement under which covered local governments must obtain approval from the state Attorney General or a designated court before implementing any changes to their voting systems or electoral structures.
Under the terms of the Mt. Pleasant settlement, the town will expand its town board from four to six seats. Two seats will be elected from single-member districts, each corresponding to one of the two villages within the town. The remaining four seats will be elected at-large from a multi-member district encompassing the rest of the Town of Mt. Pleasant. The town will also pay the plaintiffs $1.4 million in costs and attorneys’ fees. The current town board voted unanimously to approve the settlement, and the new method of electing town board members will first take effect for the 2027 town elections.
The Mt. Pleasant settlement takes a different approach from the one recently reached by the Town of Newburgh, which resolved its NYVRA challenge by adopting ranked-choice voting (RCV) for town board elections. Rather than restructuring the composition or geographic boundaries of the board, Newburgh’s agreement preserves its existing at-large format for electing members of the town board while changing the counting method for town board races. Under the RCV system agreed to by Newburgh, voters will rank candidates in order of preference; the candidate receiving the fewest first-choice votes in each round is eliminated and votes are reallocated to the remaining candidates based on the voter’s preference. This process continues until the requisite number of candidates has reached the threshold needed to fill the available seats.
Ranked-choice voting is currently being used in New York City. In New York City, however, RCV is only used for party primary elections and special elections for municipal offices. Newburgh, under the terms of its NYVRA settlement, will use RCV in general elections.
The Mt. Pleasant and Newburgh settlements illustrate two distinct remedial frameworks for resolving NYVRA litigation. Local governments facing NYVRA challenges will need to carefully assess the legal merits of the claims against them, the costs and risks of litigation, and the long-term implications of changes to their electoral systems. Should your local government need assistance in addressing NYVRA issues, feel free to reach out to one of our attorneys with experience in this area of law.
