ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Some local offices flipped after Election Night, and the first impacts of the even year election law were seen in the town of Rush.

News10NBC’s Adelisa Badzic reported live from the Board of Elections in Rochester after speaking with Ricky Price, a political science professor at St. John Fisher University, about reactions to both national and local races. Price said Democrats outperformed many expectations, but there was something rare as red counties in New York went more red and blue counties went deeper blue.

“So that wave that we saw in 2020 in response to Trump and COVID and the situation in the world was stronger in New York than it seems to be in 2026. So that’s interesting,” Price said.

“It depends on whether you want low turnout or high turnout. And so you align your elections, if you’re a party that wins with high turnouts, that’s namely the Democrats, you want to align your election in big election years, midterms, or more importantly, presidential years, right? Because that’s where we see the largest turnout,” Price said.

The even year election law was signed in 2023 by Gov. Kathy Hochul, moving elections for a number of local offices to even-numbered years. Because of this, multiple town supervisors who ran last year for a two-year term had to campaign again this year, including Lee Hankins in Rush.

Adelisa reached out to Hankins to discuss the past year and whether the one-year term was beneficial or presented issues, but was told he had no comment on the results or other topics.

The even year election law does not apply to any offices in New York City or any town or county office with a three-year term.

To see the latest local and state election results, click here.

CLICK TO SEE OUR 2026 ELECTION COVERAGE HERE

PREVIOUS: Decision 2026: Town supervisors in Gates and Rush are trailing in re-election bid

The post How the 2023 even-year election law impacts some 2026 election races in NYS appeared first on WHEC.com.