A change in the state is moving certain local elections to even years in the future.

Because of that, this year will be the last year that the offices of county executive and individual legislators will take place during an odd year.

According to county Republican Board of Elections Commissioner Nacole Ellis, county offices exempt from the new law include Sheriff, County Clerk, District Attorney, Family Court Judge, County Court Judge, and Surrogate Court Judge.

In Chautauqua County, the Sheriff was elected in 2022 and the District Attorney was elected in 2024, so those offices are already on even years.

The County Clerk is up this year, which is a four-year term, so that office will continue to be on odd years.

The County Court Judge is up this year. The office is for a 10 year term, so it will continue to be on odd years.

The Surrogate Court Judge was elected in 2019, also an odd year, with a 10-year term.

Chautauqua County has two Family Court judges. Michael Sullivan was elected in 2016 and Peter Johnson was elected in 2024, both during even years.

Ellis did say that if a county level judge resigns or retires before the end of the term, the new judge’s term will be for 10 years, instead of filling the previous judge’s term.

Ellis said town governments, excluding town justices, are also affected by the change.

Village and city governments are exempt.

Dunkirk and Jamestown elect all of their council and mayor seats on odd years, so those will continue.

With the change, the winner of this year’s county executive race will serve three years.

Also, each county legislator elected this year will serve a one-year term.

Ellis said one of the challenges with moving certain elections to even years will be the number of offices on a ballot and the physical size of the ballot.

Chautauqua County prints ballots for its elections. Ellis said that is the goal going forward, however with the longer ballot, she said it’s possible that could change.

“Our hope is to keep it (printing) in house. We are working on making sure that we can still make that happen. Obviously, there’s some things that come along with that with our printing capabilities and what we’re capable of doing in house,” she said.

County Democratic Election Commissioner Luz Torres agreed.

“We’ve got to find out if we can print them or not,” she said.

Torres did say she hopes with the changes, more people will vote in local elections, since more people generally vote in federal or state elections than when there’s only local candidates on a ballot.

Ellis said they are predicting a 35% turnout this year.

Last year as a presidential race, the county Board of Elections had predicted a 75% turnout and in 2022, when the governor was on the ballot, officials had predicted 50% turnout. These were made when Brian Abram was the Republican commissioner and Ellis was a staff member.

Ellis took over for Abram earlier this year.

She and Torres declined to offer a prediction for future voter turnout races during odd years.