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Newburgh board approves settlement, moves to ranked‑choice voting after lawsuit; residents and commenters push back
Summary
The Town Board said it approved a Feb. 23 settlement that will implement ranked‑choice voting for council seats and reduced plaintiffs’ legal fees; the supervisor said the town made no admission of wrongdoing, while public commenters disputed his account and argued the settlement acknowledged systemic concerns.
Supervisor Gilbert J. Piaquadio told the Town Board that the town settled litigation under the New York Voting Rights Act on Feb. 23, 2026 and will implement ranked‑choice voting for town council seats. He said the settlement reduced plaintiffs’ legal fees from $2.5 million to $1.6 million and that the town made no admission of suppressing minority voting rights.
The settlement replaces the town’s previously discussed proposal to move to a ward system; under the settlement the council remains elected at large but voters will rank candidates. Piaquadio said the town agreed to the settlement to avoid protracted litigation and to limit legal costs, and he characterized the change as not creating racially drawn wards.
Councilmember Mary Lou Carolan, who voted to approve the settlement, said she supported ending the legal process rather than spending more taxpayer money and that the town will conduct an educational process on ranked‑choice voting for residents.
In public comments, resident Josh Huckabee challenged the supervisor’s description of the plaintiffs’ aims and of the settlement. “The claim that the plaintiff wanted to draw voting lines based on race is false,” Huckabee said. “If that were their goal, they would have fought for redistricting maps. Instead, they agreed to rank‑choice voting. This system uses no lines at all.”
The board minutes record the board’s approval of the settlement; the minutes do not include detailed court filings or the settlement agreement text in full. The supervisor’s description of legal costs and of motivations is reported in the minutes and was contested by public commenters at the meeting.
Next steps listed in the minutes include public education on the new voting method. The minutes do not specify a date for implementing ranked‑choice voting or for any referendum; the settlement language itself is not reproduced in the minutes and details about implementation timelines are not specified.
