Calls for more public input on new NY political maps

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Community activists and lawmakers traveled to a rural courthouse in western New York on Friday to weigh in on the shape of the state’s political district maps and to ask a judge for more opportunities for the public to be heard. The state judge overseeing the redrawing of New York’s congressional and state Senate districts scheduled just one public hearing on the matter before the maps are due to be finalized May 20. The court is working on a tight timeline to get the maps done after the state’s highest court ruled that previous versions drawn by the Democrat-controlled legislature were unconstitutional.