Media Center

Common Cause/NY is leading a lawsuit appealing the state Board of Elections' approved ballot language on the November ballot to establish a redistricting commission.

Susan Lerner, executive director of Common Cause NY, is one of four plaintiffs in a lawsuit opposing the language of the ballot proposal that will ask voters if they want to amend the state constitution to overhaul the current redistricting system.

Voters have filed a lawsuit appealing the New York Board of Elections’ approved ballot language for Proposition 1, which concerns amending the state constitution to establish a redistricting commission.

In November, New York voters will be asked to pass judgment on a constitutional amendment that changes the way legislative and congressional districts are redrawn every 10 years based on the U.S. Census. The ballot proposition is wonky and complicated and therefore open to manipulation. And manipulated it was.

For the second consecutive year, government-reform advocates are raising questions about a statewide referendum on this year's ballot and claiming its language is a bit too rosy.

Good government groups proposed ballot language on Thursday for a constitutional amendment on redistricting that will come before voters in November, in an effort to ensure that the phrasing is “strictly neutral and not biased.”