Two State Assembly members and two State Senators were elected last November to municipal offices in New York City and Buffalo. Because their seats were vacated mid-term, special elections to fill those vacancies are being held on February 2, 2026.

Together, these four districts represent nearly one million residents across Manhattan, Queens, and downtown Buffalo. Yet rather than a democratic contest, voters in these districts are participating in elections that look more like a coronation.

Like regularly scheduled general elections, special elections for state offices are often uncompetitive. Most Assembly and Senate districts are dominated by a single party – in these cases, the Democratic Party – meaning that the candidate who secures the party’s nomination is almost always assured victory.

In state legislative special elections, however, party nominees are not selected through primary elections. Instead, a small group of party officials chooses the nominee, effectively eliminating any opportunity for voters to participate in the selection process.

The result is a system of predetermined elections that encourages patronage and routinely produces voter turnout below 5%, yet is the path that sent nearly one in five current state legislators to Albany.

There is another way. For nearly four decades, New York City has used nonpartisan special elections that generate greater competition, more campaigning, and significantly higher voter participation.

Here are the details.

Special Elections Held on February 2, 2026

• State Assembly District 36 – Western Queens (vacated by Zohran Mamdani, who was elected Mayor of New York City)
• State Assembly District 74 – Manhattan’s East Side (vacated by Harvey Epstein, who was elected to the New York City Council)
• State Senate District 47 – Manhattan’s West Side (vacated by Brad Hoylman-Sigal, who was elected Manhattan Borough President)
• State Senate District 61 – Downtown Buffalo (vacated by Sean Ryan, who was elected Mayor of Buffalo)

How Party Nominees Were Chosen

Candidates in state legislative special elections may run as nominees of a political party or as independents (if they collect the required number of signatures).

Unlike general elections, however, there are no party primaries. Instead, a committee made up of a small group of party officials chooses who gets to run on the party line. The composition of that committee varies based on the internal rules of every party in each county; they are commonly controlled or heavily influenced by party leaders, including the chair of the county party.

For the February 2 special elections:

• In Queens, Democratic County Chair Gregory Meeks and four district leaders representing Assembly District 36—a total of five individuals—selected Diana Moreno as the Democratic nominee. Two candidates who ran for other seats before, Rana Abdelhamid and Mary Jobaida, collected signatures to appear on the ballot as independents.
• In Buffalo, the Erie County Democratic Executive Committee, chaired by Jeremy Zellner, selected Zellner himself as the Democratic nominee for Senate District 61. Until announcing his candidacy, Zellner also served as the county’s elections commissioner. Other interested candidates, including Assembly Member Jonathan Rivera, were effectively blocked from the ballot.
• In Manhattan, Democratic County Committee members residing in the relevant districts voted on nominees. In Senate District 47, Erik Bottcher was selected unanimously by 130 committee members to run on as the Democratic candidate. In Assembly District 74, Keith Powers received 60% support in a meeting of 168 committee members to secure the Democratic nomination. Manhattan is an outlier among county parties for operating a comparatively open process within the party-controlled system, yet it still only involved a miniscule fraction of the voters in the district. In practice, about 0.0007% of enrolled democratic voters in Senate District 47 and 0.002% in Assembly District 74 decided who would be the nominee and therefore be all-but-assured a win in the special election.
• Local leaders of the Republican, Conservative, and Working Family parties also selected their candidates for these seats, in an even less transparent process (Dan Gagliardo in Senate District 61, Charlotte Friedman in Senate District 47, and Joseph Foley in Assembly District 74; the WFP placed Bottcher on their line).

State Special Elections: Party Patronage and Low Turnout

This system means that nearly everywhere in New York, the outcome of state special elections is effectively predetermined, having been set behind closed doors by party insiders weeks before ballots are cast. Candidates seeking office only need to convince a handful of party leaders – or at best, dozens.

Campaigns are then truncated to a few short weeks, and challengers are locked out before the public ever hears their names. Candidates who receive party backing in one-party districts face little incentive to introduce themselves to voters, articulate policy platforms, or conduct robust outreach.

Standalone special elections already suffer from low turnout due to limited notice and reduced media coverage. The insider-controlled nomination process further suppresses participation. Over the past decade, average voter turnout in New York City state legislative special elections has been approximately 4%, and in some races has fallen below 2%.

Instead of energizing democracy, the current special election system actively promotes party patronage.

 

A Common Path to State Office

Today’s special elections are not a rare occurrence.

Nearly one in five current members of the New York State Legislature, about 19 percent (including the ones elected today), first entered office through this process. Given the legislature’s high incumbency rate, candidates who secure party nominations before special elections are often assured a lifetime position in the legislature, should they seek it.

The current cohort of state lawmakers includes eight members first elected to office through a special election over three decades ago.

 

 

There Is a Better Model – in New York City

New York City offers a proven alternative to the party-controlled, competition-depressing state special election system.

When vacancies occur in New York City offices — including City Council, Borough President, and even citywide positions — the city holds non-partisan special elections. There are no primaries, candidates collect signatures, party labels are removed from the ballot, and all voters can participate in a single election.

These non-partisan elections do not change the party composition in the City Council. Once candidates win, they join either the Democratic or the Republican conferences in the Council.

New York City adopted this model in 1988, and it has worked well for nearly four decades. Special elections for city offices see more competition, more campaigning, and far greater voter engagement than ones for state offices.

The difference is striking. Average turnout in New York City’s non-partisan special elections in the last decade was roughly double that of state legislative special elections in the five boroughs held under the current insider-controlled system. Thousands more New Yorkers choose to participate in non-partisan special elections. That is not an accident. When multiple candidates — often several Democrats — compete for the same seat, they are forced to knock on doors, articulate positions, and energize supporters. Voters respond when their choices feel real.

The Solution

The case for reform is obvious. New York should adopt a non-partisan special election model for state legislative vacancies, like the one already used successfully in New York City. Such a system would open the field to more candidates, reduce the power of party gatekeepers, and give voters a genuine choice — without leaving districts unrepresented for a long time.

Governor Kathy Hochul publicly committed to reforming the special elections process last year, yet no changes were made. Now, in 2026, voters across the state are once again being asked to head to polls under this broken system.

At a moment when faith in democracy is fragile, the state should be doing everything possible to increase voter engagement – not running elections designed to minimize participation. If state leaders are serious about strengthening democracy, this is a reform they can no longer put off.

 

See the full report for a list of state and local special elections in New York City in 2016-2025, and a list of current state lawmakers and their first election.