Virtual Hearings Announced on New District Lines in New York

New York will draw new district lines for members of Congress and the state Legislature ahead of next year’s elections, and the public will be allowed to offer input in that process through a series of upcoming public hearings.

The Independent Redistricting Commission, the panel charged with drawing the new districts, announced Monday that eight virtual public hearings will be held over the next month.

Those hearings will be held over a virtual platform that will allow members of the public to speak directly to members of the commission about the redistricting process. 

The hearings will be split based on areas of the state:

• Nassau and Suffolk Counties, July 20 at 2 p.m.
• Queens, July 22 at 2 p.m.
• Bronx and Manhattan, July 26 at 2 p.m.
• Brooklyn and Staten Island, July 29 at 2 p.m.
• Mid-Hudson Valley and the Capital Region, August 2 at 2 p.m.
• North Country and Mohawk Valley, August 5 at 2 p.m.
• Southern Tier and Central New York, August 9 at 2 p.m.
• Finger Lakes and Western New York, August 12 at 2 p.m.

Instructions on how to join those hearings will be posted on the commission’s website: https://nyirc.gov/meetings.

Members of the commission will use testimony from those hearings to draw an initial set of district lines, which will be released on September 15. The commission will then hold another set of hearings before releasing final district lines for next year’s elections.