From Jim Gardner, Michael Halberstam, and Jeff Wice, and the Jaeckle Center for Law, Democracy and Governance at Buffalo Law School, two great new resources for New York elections.  The first is New York Elections News, a blog covering what it sounds like.  It’s been spending a fair amount of time on New York’s proposed state constitutional amendment changing the redistricting process, including strong commentary by Todd Breitbart, a former NY Senate staff member and expert on the issue.

The second is the New York State Democracy Clearinghouse, a collection of local redistricting maps, materials, and election data from New York state.  As someone who knows a little something about collecting redistricting information, I can promise that this sort of endeavor is sorely needed.  I decided early on that I had to focus on state legislative and congressional redistricting; local redistricting is at least as important, but the volume of information made it not feasible for me to try to track nationwide. The Jaeckle Center’s clearinghouse promises to be a vital and exceedingly welcome resource for practitioners, researchers, and engaged New Yorkers.