CASE STUDIES IN EMERGENCY ELECTION LITIGATION

Federal Judicial Center 8/25/2023 1

Challenge to Weighted Voting 

in Party-Endorsement Procedures 

Kehoe v. Casadei 

(Thomas J. McAvoy, N.D.N.Y. 6:11-cv-408) 

Members of a city’s party committee filed a federal complaint challenging the elimination of weighted voting, which weighted members’ votes for endorsements by the number of party members each 

represented. The district judge issued a temporary restraining order 

against the change, and the case settled two years later with a return 

to weighted voting. 

Subject: Voting procedures. Topics: Party procedures; class 

action; attorney fees. 

Five days before an April 18, 2011, meeting of Rome, New York’s Republican 

Committee, as the committee began its candidate-endorsement process, two 

members of the committee filed a federal class-action complaint challenging 

April 4 changes to the committee’s bylaws.1 The plaintiffs objected to “the 

elimination of weighted voting, the elimination of the use of proxies and the 

use of secret ballots for the endorsement of candidates.”2 “Under the 

weighted voting system, the voting power of a committee member is 

weighted in accordance with the number of registered Republicans in their 

respective election district.”3

On April 15, Judge Thomas J. McAvoy issued a temporary restraining 

order enjoining the committee’s screening or endorsing candidates pending 

an April 22 hearing.4 He forgave the plaintiffs’ ex parte application for relief, 

but ordered immediate service.5 At the request of counsel for the defendants—the committee and its chair—the hearing was rescheduled for May 9.6

Counsel for the defendants notified the court on April 28 that they did 

not oppose the plaintiffs’ injunction motion and they intended a rescission of 

the bylaws change.7 On September 6, Judge McAvoy noted the absence of a 

filed settlement agreement and issued the preliminary injunction.8

 On October 20, he denied the defendants’ motion to dismiss the complaint “on the 

ground that the endorsement of candidates by the [committee] is not an electoral function.”9

1. Complaint, Kehoe v. Casadei, No. 6:11-cv-408 (N.D.N.Y. Apr. 13, 2011), D.E. 1; Opinion, id. (Apr. 15, 2011), D.E. 6 [hereinafter Temporary-Restraining-Order Opinion]. 

2. Complaint, supra note 1, at 3–4. 

3. Temporary-Restraining-Order Opinion, supra note 1, at 3 n.1. 

4. Id. at 5. 

5. Id. at 5–6. 

6. Docket Sheet, Kehoe, No. 6:11-cv-408 (N.D.N.Y. Apr. 13, 2011); Minutes, id. (Apr. 22, 

2011), D.E. 9. 

7. Letter, id. (Apr. 28, 2011), D.E. 10. 

8. Letter, id. (Sept. 6, 2011), D.E. 17. 

9. Opinion, id. (Oct. 20, 2011), D.E. 26, 2011 WL 5008044. 
Challenge to Weighted Voting in Party-Endorsement Procedures 

2 Federal Judicial Center 8/25/2023 

Two years later, the parties filed a settlement agreement: “the Rome Republican Committee endorsement of Republican city-wide candidates for 

elections shall be done by weighted secret ballots without the benefit of proxies.”10

10. Settlement Agreement, id. (Oct. 28, 2013), D.E. 59 (noting also the payment of $2,000 

to the plaintiffs); Judgment, id. (June 27, 2013), D.E. 53; see Amended Complaint, id. (Dec. 

19, 2012), D.E. 43.