Local Law 8 for 2019 established independent redistricting for the County Legislature.  It includes an Albany County Commission on Redistricting and a Majority Minority District (MMD) Redistricting Subcommittee.

The Commission and the Subcommittee shall make recommendations to the County Legislature on how the districts of the County Legislature should be drawn. The Commission consists of nine (9) members, and the Subcommittee consists of seven (7) members. Members of both the Commission and MMD Subcommittee are Albany County residents and registered voters in New York State.

Both the Commission and the Subcommittee are unpaid positions, but funding is provided for consultants and staff, including legal and technical experts.

For more information on the scope and requirements of the Commission and MMD Subcommittee, please see Albany County Local Law 8 for 2019  and the Guide to Local Law 8 for 2019 (a point by point explanation).

The Albany County Redistricting Commission (ACRC) was formed and began meeting regularly in October 2021.

The County’s Contracts Administration Board at its January 10, 2022 meeting approved contracts with NY Law School’s New York Census and Redistricting Institute (Jeffrey M. Wice) as counsel and Applied Geographics Inc. as mapping contractor, and contracts have been signed by both organizations. Both contractors have excellent reputations in the field of redistricting and are now fully engaged.

An initial public hearing will occur on March 8, from 4:00–7:00pm to take public input before maps are drawn and will followed by public hearings for feedback on draft maps when available.

Our public hearings will be streamed live on our YouTube channel. Once we have streamed a live hearing, the video will remain accessible for later viewing.

To contact the ACRC, please email RedistrictingCommission@albanycountyny.gov

The Majority Minority District Redistricting Subcommittee (MMD) was established in November 2021 with the appointment of its first three members.

More about the Majority Minority District (MMD) Subcommittee…

Governor Signs Legislation Ensuring Fair County Redistricting

Governor Kathy Hochul has signed legislation to provide that regardless of any local law to the contrary, county reapportionment of members of local legislative bodies is first and foremost subject to state and federal constitutional requirements ensuring fairness and equity, and in furtherance of the principle of "one person one vote." Read the full story on the NYS Governor's website

In October of 2021, New York State passed a law relating to County Redistricting that supersedes the current local law for Albany County. The law set standards for redistricting for all counties that includes:

• 5% total deviation in population across districts
• Respect for minority voting rights
• Districts must be contiguous and compact
• Districts must be drawn not to discourage competition, not to favor incumbents or political parties, to maintain cores of cities, towns, villages, existing districts and other communities of interest, andnot to divide cities, towns or villages less than 40% of average (mean) district population.
• Allow orderly/efficient administration of elections.

More information about this law…