Candidates running for election Nov. 4 may want to keep their yard signs, as they’ll have to do it all over again soon.

That’s because who you elect this fall may not be allowed to serve their full term.

New York State’s highest court recently upheld a change to election law that would place local elections in even-numbered years, when people go to the polls for bigger races, like governor, congress, senate and president.

The move was pushed and celebrated by Democrats and derided by Republicans, who had taken the 2023 law to court, delaying its implementation until now.

The change won’t affect odd-year elections in cities, including New York City, and even small cities, like Saratoga Springs. (People tell me that even Mechanicville is a city, but I don’t believe it!)

However, town and county elections will be moved. (Village elections will be the same.)

While the details need to be worked out, it appears that someone elected to a two-year term (like town supervisor) this Nov. 4, 2025, will really only get a one-year term, having to run again in November 2026 (the year of the governor’s race – likely between Gov. Kathy Hochul and NY-21 Rep. Elise Stefanik).

People elected to four-year terms this fall, such as town councilpeople, will have to run again in 2028, as opposed to when their term would normally go, to 2029.

Democrats say the change is to save a few bucks by not having to man polls every year, and to get higher turnout for local elections; Republicans say it is a blue downstate power grab to infiltrate Upstate small towns that normally vote red. (At the national level, high voter turnout is often equated to blue victories.)

But I think both sides have it wrong at the local level.

Here is the 2024 map via Wikipedia, the red being areas that voted for Donald Trump.

Here is Politico’s map, which is a little redder (Essex County was a toss-up.):

The few blue areas within the state boundaries are where cities largely are, meaning, they won’t be affected by the change in law (but their red suburbs will).

A Local Example

In my home county, Washington, which is rural and red (it’s the first red county north of the blue Capital Region counties, along the blue Vermont border – it’s shaped like a No. 1 foam hand), we have town and county elections going on this November. There are no cities here.

Most towns in my county this year have uncontested elections, but some towns do have real races going on, including my town of Greenwich, which has gone blue since I’ve owned the hometown newspaper (some say the newspaper is the reason that happened, but I think that’s just a coincidence).

In my county with a total population just a bit over 60,000 people (about 39,000 are registered to vote), 73.48% of eligible voters went to the polls in 2024, the year of the Trump-Harris race (Trump got 61% of the vote here).

Nationally, turnout was 65.3%, according to census data, so our rural county’s numbers were better than that, and it’s safe to assume most rural counties surpassed national numbers.

In the last odd-numbered year, 2023, voter turnout in my county was just 24.88%. Granted, many towns did not have contested elections nor do they have newspapers to get the word out. There was only one countywide race, but it pitted a Republican against an independent candidate with no Democrat running.

In my town, Greenwich, there was a contested election, and, as mentioned, there is a newspaper to get the word out, but turnout, while better than the county average, still was relatively low, around 40%, compared to the much higher turnout during the presidential year.

(Interestingly, the person who ran as an independent in the countywide race won the towns that had newspapers, where she advertised and had stories written about her, but lost handily in the towns without newspapers.)

Can Local Candidates Afford Ads in Mass Media?

So why the higher turnout during presidential and other high-profile election years? Because those candidates can use mass media – TV and big digital buys – to get the word out. Little rural newspapers like mine are not mass media.

Everyone gets mass media – even in the towns without newspapers. And, let’s face it, such races are spicier.

Moving the local races to these years will bring more voters to the bottom of the ticket, but it’s safe to assume that the added 30+ percent of voters are interested in state and national issues, not local ones. They likely don’t even know their local paper exists. They merely will vote for the same party at the bottom of the ticket as they did at the top; and Upstate, that favors Republicans, even though national party politics matter very little at the local level.

An Avalanche of Uninformed Voters

I’m unsure what state Democrats were thinking by changing the law. It’s not like Hochul in 2026 is going to have long coattails; whatever race she is in (if she is the nominee) should be close. Maybe they are thinking bigger picture? Such strategizing is above my pay grade.

Many people who care about local matters tend to vote for earnest candidates who will handle the rather mundane everyday tasks that keep the roads and communities safe and harmonious. Bringing hordes of uniformed voters to the polls may upset that harmony; it may turn local elections into loud and crass affairs – like the bigger elections at the top of the tickets.

Stefanik, who campaigns in the national slash-and-burn style, represents Washington County and other red counties. She’s popular here. Even-year voters enjoy that kind of heat. They may be ill-informed on small-town candidates, however.

Will It Dissuade Well-Meaning Local Candidates From Running?

And many people at the local level may not want to run if they feel the race will be too heated. Local candidates often eschew the limelight and just want to do their civic duty. Being on the same ticket as nasty state and local races may dissuade them from running.

I guess if you’re ultra-partisan, this could be a good thing to help you get like-minded people elected at the local level – voting on filling potholes, buying new plows, animal control, fire department contracts and other such things small-town boards do.

But I think the ideal of keeping local elections local was worth the added polling costs.