Candidates Chris Daly (Keene Town Council), Laura Driessigacker-Hooker (Wilmington Town Council) and Tim Follos (Wilmington Town Supervisor) discussed their campaigns. Tim and Laura reminded the committee of the upcoming event at UJAC.

Yesterday’s primary results were summarized. There was only one Democratic town primary, in Westport and Jen Williams (Town Council) won. Countywide turnout was 13%, with only 5% of the Jay Republicans voting for the County Clerk position. Chelsea Merrihew defeated Stephanie DeZalia (but she will still appear on the November ballot as an Independent candidate anyway).

In an effort to address the low turnouts for “off year” town and county elections, the NY Legislature passed a bill mandating that these elections shall be held in even numbered years. The idea is to conduct the local elections during state and national election cycles when turnout is higher. If signed by the Governor, then candidates running in 2025 will have to run again in 2026 in order to align the offices with the new election cycles. State Senator Dan Stec (R), and Assembly Members Matt Simpson (R) and Billy Jones (R) voted against this bill.

There will be no July meeting, the next ECDC meeting is August 29.