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Electing NYC mayor and U.S. president in the same year? It may be on the ballot this Nov.
By
Brigid Bergin
Published Jul 1, 2025
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TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty Images
By
Brigid Bergin
Published Jul 1, 2025
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New York City voters won’t just pick a new mayor this November — they may also weigh in on a proposal to hold city elections the same year as the presidential election.
The Charter Revision Commission empaneled by Mayor Eric Adams last year plans to include a question on the general election ballot asking voters whether the city should move its current primary and general election for municipal offices to even-numbered years, which see significantly higher voter turnout than odd years.
The proposal shared exclusively with Gothamist comes just a week after New York City’s primary election, where more than a million voters cast ballots. The preliminary turnout in the Democratic mayoral primary hit nearly 30%, fueled by strong turnout among young and first-time Democratic primary voters. That’s an increase from 2021, when roughly 28% of voters cast ballots.
Still, officials say moving city elections to even-numbered years stands to boost that turnout even further.
“Our turnout in presidential elections is more than double our turnout in mayoral elections,” said Richard Buery, Chair of the Charter Revision Commission, explaining why the commission wants to move the election. “We think even-year elections is one straightforward way of making it easier for New Yorkers to have a chance to participate in our city elections.”
The conversation to shift from odd-to-even year elections has picked up momentum in recent years. The good government group Citizens Union issued a lengthy analysis in 2023 examining how shifting city elections to even years has helped boost turnout in other localities that adopted the change.
Before the change could be enacted, it would require an amendment to the state constitution, which currently requires all cities to hold their elections for municipal offices in odd-year elections. Supporters say the ballot initiative helps ensure New York City is ready if the state legislature moves a measure forward.
“It creates a mechanism when the state does take action,” said Ben Weinberg, director of public policy at Citizens Union. “New York City will be able to immediately flip the switch to transition to even years if the state adopts the change.”
Any change to the state constitution must pass two successive legislative sessions before being adopted by voters. Weinberg said a change like this would be unlikely to take effect until January 2029 at the earliest.
The Charter Commission is also still considering an overhaul to the city’s closed primary system, which requires voters to be registered to a party to select its candidates for the November general election.
A proposal from the group would consolidate the city’s partisan primaries, with Democrats, Republicans and independents all appearing on the same ranked-choice ballot in June.
“The result of that would be the top two winners would then face off in a November general election,” said Buery, who noted the Commission still wanted to hear more testimony from the public before officially recommending the change.
Buery noted that 1.1 million voters were not registered to vote in either the Democratic or Republican Parties this year. He said the commission looked into whether the city could adopt a primary system that would allow those voters to have a chance to decide who will lead the city.
Ahead of releasing their report to the public, the commission sought input from legal experts to ensure the proposed electoral reforms would meet the requirements under the state’s John Lewis Voting Rights Act, which requires localities with a history of racial discrimination to seek pre-clearance from the New York state attorney general’s office before local officials make changes to how they conduct elections.
Former U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch reviewed both election proposals and submitted a report stating she believed they met the state’s pre-clearance standard, which is intended to prevent vote dilution or voter suppression.
“The evidence demonstrates that the two changes to New York City voting laws under consideration by the City Charter Revision Commission — a shift from odd-year to even-year elections and a change from a closed primary with a major-party general election to an open primary with a top-two general election — are likely to increase voter participation and unlikely to result in retrogression,” Lynch wrote in the report. “Therefore, the policy proposals appear to satisfy the preclearance standards under the NYVRA."
The Commission plans to hold its final hearing on July 7 at the Schomburg Center in Harlem, where people can testify on any of the proposals. A formal vote on the language that would go on the ballot before voters is scheduled for July 21.
Tagged
Politics
new york city
Brigid Bergin
Brigid Bergin is an award-winning senior reporter on the People and Power desk. She is fiercely committed to telling stories that help people engage and support democracy. In 2022, she hosted a live, ten-week call-in politics show ahead of the midterm elections called The People's Guide to Power. Brigid's reporting in 2017 included some of the first coverage of a political newcomer now known as AOC. In 2016, she broke the news of a voter purge in Brooklyn just days before New York’s presidential primary, triggering city, state and federal investigations. Brigid also guest hosts The Brian Lehrer Show and All Of It. She graduated from the University at Albany and the CUNY Newmark School of Journalism. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or Signal 917-723-4719.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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