By Rob Deichert

 

Oct. 14, 2026: Friends of Bronxville Elections calls its campaign to move Village elections from March to November “non-partisan.” I was curious whether the people behind the effort reflected the political makeup of Bronxville, so I looked at the contribution records and the 2026 petitions.

 

The numbers caught my attention.

 

The same political party accounts for ~41% of registered voters in Bronxville, but ~96% of the group's identified donors and ~97% of the petition witnesses.

 

Ten of that party's 13 local district leaders donated, and 12 of the 13 helped collect signatures.

 

Here is how I arrived at those numbers.

 

The village voter file I used includes 4,714 voters. About ~41% are enrolled in one political party, ~25% in the other major party, ~31% are unaffiliated and ~4% belong to other parties.

 

The contribution records show 23 individual donors to Friends of Bronxville Elections. Twenty-two are registered with the same political party. The other donor is unaffiliated. I did not find a donor registered with another party.

 

Of the 13 district leaders for that party in Bronxville, 10 donated to the effort. That is ~77% of its local district leadership, and those 10 people account for ~43% of the group's identified donors.

 

I also reviewed the 2026 petition. They list 34 people as witnesses to the signatures. Thirty-three are registered with that same political party, and one is unaffiliated. Of the 119 petition pages, 117 were witnessed by members of that party. Twelve of its 13 local district leaders also appear among the witnesses.

 

~41% of Bronxville voters belong to that party.

~96% of the identified donors belong to that party.

10 of 13 district leaders donated.

~97% of the 2026 petition witnesses belong to that party.

12 of 13 district leaders helped collect signatures.

To summarize:

I am not suggesting that a person's party registration tells us why they donated or volunteered. Nor does the involvement of district leaders establish that their party formally sponsored the campaign. People can support changing the election date for reasons that have nothing to do with party politics.

 

Still, when a group describes itself as nonpartisan, I think it is reasonable to ask who is funding the effort and who is doing the work. This data gives Bronxville residents something concrete to consider.

 

I'll leave it to voters to decide what the numbers mean.

Robert Deichert Jr.