Referenda Clog the Ballot Box

New Yorkers who hit the polls today flipped their paper ballots over after voting for their candidates and answered six ballot questions, including the question of at what age certain judges must step down from the bench.

About 64 percent of New Yorkers voted against the proposal that would extend the retirement age for State Supreme Court judges from 70 to 80.

For two months the chief judge of the Court of Appeals Jonathan Lippman met with groups like Fund for Modern Courts, a nonprofit court-reform group, and the New York City Bar Association to persuade them to vote for it. He said that the change would address a shortage of judges and that a retirement age of 70 is outdated, according to The Wall Street Journal. The 68-year-old judge would not have to retire under the new plan.

But groups like Citizens Union opposed the proposal because it excluded lower-court judges who make up the majority of jurists in the state.

“There is no principled reason to raise the retirement age for some judges and not all,” Dick Dadey, executive director of Citizens Union told the New York Times.

Voters did, however, pass the referendum to authorize casino air jordan 11 gaming, in a vote of 57.3 percent to 42.7 percent.

Eight- three percent of New Yorkers were in favor of proposal three granting additional civil service credit for veterans with disabilities certified post-appointment.

Previously, the State Constitution granted veterans five extra points on civil service exams for an original appointment, two and a half for a promotion. Disabled veterans were given ten points for an original appointment and five for promotion.

Veterans were only granted additional credit once, and were not eligible for the higher amount of credit he or she would have received if he or she had been certified as disabled before the appointment or promotion. The amendment will now create an exception to the one-time-only credit rule.

Since 1962, New Yorkers have voted to allow local governments to borrow money for sewage-system construction and repair. These services were not included in the debt limit, and voters today decided to continue this policy for the next ten years in a 59.6 percent to 40.4 percent vote.

Voters passed the fourth and fifth proposals on the ballot, which dealt with land in the Adirondack Forest preserve. The fourth proposal will settle 100-year-old land disputes between the State and private homeowners in the Hamilton County town known as Township 40.

Proposal five will grant NYCO Minerals Inc. 200 acres of land to mine. In exchange, the private company will give the state the same amount of land back to enter into the forest preserve. When the company is finished mining all 200 acres, it must restore the land and transfer it back to the state.