New Paltz takes step to shift village election to November

Village of New Paltz trustees took the first step to divest themselves of the responsibility of running village elections at their January 13 meeting, by passing a resolution to move the date from May to November, starting in 2023. This move, which will occur only if village voters approve, would shift the cost and administration of village elections to county taxpayers; trustees also believe that it would increase turnout for the local elections. A consequence of the move would be that the village elections would become partisan, which means that candidates could run on an established party line rather than making up their own party name on the fly. Deputy mayor KT Tobin asserted, without evidence, that this would not make it more difficult for a candidate who lacks major-party endorsement to get elected, since there remains a process for securing a ballot line by collecting petition signatures regardless. In partisan elections, candidates with formal party endorsements appear on lines above those of other candidates; moreover, a 2003 study in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology suggests that voters will consider a party platform over an individual candidate’s position when filling out a ballot. As of yet, no groups of village residents have weighed in on this proposal.