Rockland Supreme Court Dismisses Challenges to New County Legislative Districts

by Rockland Daily Staff

Challenges to the Rockland County Legislature's new redistricting plan, as reported here by Rockland Daily, have been dismissed by the New York State Supreme Court, leaving the plan scheduled to go into effect on January 1, 2024. 

The redistricting plan created new county legislative districts in response to the results of the 2020 Census, with the new districts each containing roughly the same number of people. 

Prior to the adoption of the new district boundaries, the largest district contained 24,089 people, while the smallest contained 17,324. Each of Rockland's 17 county Legislative Districts now contains about 19,918 people. 

Rockland County Legislature Minority Leader Lon M. Hofstein said that while no plan could please every person, the redistricting plan now in place did accomplish many goals. 

"As I've stated previously, there isn't a redistricting plan that all would consider perfect, but I believe as a result of our efforts, what we did accomplish with the adopted new plan, is to meet all legal requirements while simultaneously serving the people to the best of our abilities," Legislator Hofstein said.  

The redistricting process included the hiring of a consultant to help create the new boundaries, a different consultant to advise the minority members of the County Legislature, a series of five public community forums in each of Rockland's towns, five additional redistricting committee meetings, news releases, social media postings, live-streaming of meetings and forums, posting of the live stream videos publicly, news media coverage, and other efforts. 

The new boundaries take effect on January 1, 2024, with all seventeen legislative seats up for election on November 7, 2023. 

To learn more about redistricting and find your legislative district map, visit here.