Plaintiffs File Second Amended Complaint, Advancing FIrst Amendment Challenge to New York’s Even Year Election Law
Candidates from Four Counties Press Constitutional Case Against State Election Officials
New York — July 9, 2026 — Plaintiffs today accepted the court’s invitation to file a Second Amended Complaint in New York Republican State Committee, et al. v. Kosinski, et al., No. 2:25-cv-06083 (E.D.N.Y.), focusing their challenges to New York's Even Year Election Law ("EYEL") on the First Amendment. The second amended complaint names the individual commissioners of the New York State Board of Elections as defendants.
The Second Amended Complaint limits the case to a single First Amendment claim brought under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. It is brought by a coalition that includes the New York Republican State Committee, the Nassau and Suffolk County Republican Committees, the New York State Association of Town Superintendents of Highways, Inc., and individual candidates from Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester, and Rockland counties.
"At its core, this case has always been about the protection the First Amendment provides for candidates seeking public office. The high court has repeatedly held that states may not change election rules to silence the voices it would rather not hear," said William A. Brewer III, partner at Brewer, Attorneys & Counselors and lead counsel for the Plaintiffs.
"For more than a century, New York protected local elections as a forum where town and county candidates could speak directly to voters about local issues,” Brewer added. “The Even Year Election Law dismantles that protection and intentionally buries local candidates beneath the noise of national campaigns. We are confident that when the evidence is heard, the Constitution will not tolerate this deliberate suppression of local political speech."
Background on Challenge
Enacted in December 2023, the EYEL moves thousands of local elections outside New York City from odd-numbered to even-numbered years, consolidating town and county races onto the same ballots as federal and statewide contests. New York City's local elections were expressly exempted from the law's operative provisions.
Plaintiffs allege that the law was designed to submerge local candidates beneath high-salience national and statewide races — relegating them to what courts have termed "Ballot Siberia" — thereby inflating the cost of political speech, foreclosing traditional channels of candidate-voter communication, and translating the statewide majority party's advantage into control of local offices in counties where the minority party has historically competed on local issues.
The second amended complaint filing follows the June 29, 2026 order of Judge Gary R. Brown, which did not reach the merits of plaintiffs' central claim: that the Even-Year Election Law violates the First Amendment rights of candidates and political committees. The court granted leave to name the individual commissioners of the New York State Board of Elections as defendants in the Second Amended Complaint. Judge Brown dismissed claims against Gov. Kathy Hochul, the State of New York, and the New York State Board of Elections on jurisdictional grounds.
The Second Amended Complaint names as defendants the four commissioners of the New York State Board of Elections — Peter S. Kosinski, Anthony J. Casale, Henry T. Berger, and Essma Bagnuola — each sued in their official capacity for their role in administering and enforcing the EYEL.
Statements from Candidate Plaintiffs
Mazi M. Pilip - Candidate: County Legislator, Nassau
"I immigrated to this county to participate in a democracy where all voices deserve to be heard as part of the democratic process. The Even Year Election Law is a cynical attempt by extreme City Democrats to usurp the democratic process of localities and take away the voice of local municipal officials. Burying local issues and concerns, which are rooted in centuries of tradition, law and practice is wrong. I will fight with neighbors on Long Island and throughout the state for the rights and the voice of local voters."
John Ferretti - Candidate: Town Supervisor, Hempstead, Nassau
"Hempstead's candidates' messages are being intentionally smothered beneath the state and national election, making it cost prohibitive for local officials to share important information with voters on television, radio, streaming outlets, and other platforms. This calendar rig was designed to centralize power in Albany while drowning out local issues with national noise. New York City politicians in Albany have engaged in a craven power grab, which will make it impossible for local officials to have municipal issues heard by the public. Our town refuses to be sidelined; Hempstead will fight this affront to the suburban voters."
Jennifer DeSena - Candidate: Town Supervisor, North Hempstead, Nassau
"Albany forced me and other local officials onto a 2026 ballot engineered to submerge local candidates beneath the national roar and price us out of the conversation. We will not be silenced, and I will not let the families of North Hempstead be ignored. Local elections and municipal issues deserve to be decided and overseen locally, not by extreme New York City politicians in Albany."
Laura Ryder - Candidate: Town Councilmember, Hempstead, Nassau
"This bad law was engineered to usurp the voice of local residents and officials by City politicians in Albany's halls of power. That's not right. Albany Democrats should not control our local elections, thereby submerging local issues beneath the chorus of state and national issues, which dominate even year electoral contests. This attempt to bury local messages of municipal officials under a wall of national money cannot stand."
Elaine Phillips - Candidate: County Comptroller, Nassau
"Nassau taxpayers deserve a real, independent debate over how their hard-earned dollars are spent. Albany rigged the calendar to smother that debate beneath a flood of national special interest money. This is an expensive power grab designed to tighten Albany's grip on our local tax dollars – but it won't happen on my watch."
Raheem Soto - Candidate for County Legislature, Suffolk
"I've watched national special interests bury local truths and price honest, grassroots candidates off the airwaves. This is exactly what this law was engineered to do. This is a naked power grab, not public policy."
Jarod Morris - Candidate for County Legislature, Suffolk
"This Albany rig robs Suffolk residents of a real choice by intentionally burying our local candidates beneath national elections. I won't stand by and let Albany quiet our communities."
Laura Endres - Candidate for County Legislature, Suffolk
"As an attorney, I know a rigged system when I see one. This law was deliberately engineered to submerge local candidates beneath the national ticket and price them out of the debate entirely. It is a constitutional overreach that we will defeat in court."
Anthony Colavita - Candidate for Town Supervisor, Eastchester, Westchester County
"Eastchester voters chose me to lead in 2025 — yet Albany made me run again in 2026 on a ballot engineered to submerge local candidates. Democrats rigged the calendar to drown us out, but I won't back down. I'll fight for our town's voice and for our Constitution."
Lauren Marie Wohl - Candidate for Town Clerk, Clarkstown, Rockland County
"Albany rigged the election calendar to shove municipal offices like mine onto a national ballot where our messages are priced out of reach and our candidates are rendered invisible. That was their plan all along. I will not let Rockland County's voice be erased quietly. I will fight for the people of Clarkstown."
Statements from Party Leadership and Supporters
Joseph Cairo, Chairman, Nassau County Republican Committee
"Local issues and concerns, including municipal elections, should be controlled by local officials, not by New York City Democrats in the back rooms of the Capitol in Albany. State Legislators from New York City have obliterated the longstanding practice of having local elections stand on their own in odd year contests while they exempted their own boroughs in New York City. Changing the political calendar, dumping local officials into even year elections, alongside state and federal races will bury local officials and smother their messages at the bottom of statewide and national ballots. This effort to diminish the flow of information to voters is a partisan declaration of war on suburban democracy, and Nassau County will answer it. We will fight for our candidates, our taxpayers, and the First Amendment."
Jesse Garcia, Chairman, Suffolk County Republican Committee
"Suffolk Republicans still believe in winning elections the old-fashioned way: knocking on doors, carrying petitions, engaging voters, and earning trust one neighborhood, one block, and one family at a time. This misguided law was designed to bury that grassroots effort beneath a flood of outside money and political gamesmanship. Rather than changing their failed policies, Albany Democrats keep changing the election rules. Their agenda of defunding the police, coddling criminals, and imposing crushing taxes on Suffolk County's middle-class families continues to be rejected by voters at the ballot box. Instead of listening to the people, they tilt the election law to their favor. Albany may have rigged the calendar against us, but the Suffolk County Republican Committee does not retreat, and we do not surrender."
Jim Moriarty, Nassau County Republican Election Commissioner
"As Nassau's Republican Election Commissioner, the damage this law inflicts on our administrative integrity is plain to see: local candidates will be submerged at the bottom of massive national ballots, their voices priced out of reach. That's not voting reform; it's administrative chaos and a distasteful power grab by New York City Democrats who control the legislative agenda in Albany. What's more, the proffered reasons for the bad law are a ruse. Other ways to achieve its falsely stated goals were never pursued – and it was never true that it would save us any money."
Erin McTiernan, Suffolk County Republican Election Commissioner
"As Suffolk's Republican Election Commissioner, I see the direct fallout of this bad law: local candidates will be crowded onto massively long ballots, their races buried at the very bottom, and their messages drowned out. Suffolk's voters have a right to clearly see and hear the people running to serve their communities and interests. What's worse: the proffered reasons for the bad law are a ruse. Claims it would save us money are demonstrably false. This is just another power grab by Albany Democrats who want complete control, going as far as taking away the voice of New York voters."