Due to the new New York State congressional maps, many local residents are now in District 2 rather than District 1.

Communities that were formerly in CD 1 and are now in CD 2 include Medford, East Moriches, Center Moriches, Moriches, Mastic, Mastic Beach, Shirley, North Bellport, Brookhaven Hamlet, North Patchogue, East Patchogue, Patchogue, Hagerman and Blue Point.

On May 20, a New York State court approved a new congressional map drawn by the court-appointed neutral expert, Jonathan Cervas. Cervas is a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for Politics and Strategy at Carnegie Mellon University.

Cervas was appointed after the New York Court of Appeals found a map passed by Democratic legislators to have “Democratic gerrymandering.” Before that, New York’s bipartisan redistricting commission could not agree on one set of maps and submitted one favoring Republicans and another favoring Democrats. After the bipartisan commission failed to come to an agreement after two proposals, the Democratic-leaning legislature drew its own map. According to state law, if the legislature rejects two rounds of maps, they may draw their own.

Primary election day is on Tuesday, Aug. 23. The Democratic congressional candidates have no primary opponents and will therefore not be on the ballot until November. Jackie Gordon is the Democratic candidate in CD 2 and Bridget Fleming is the Democratic candidate in CD 1. On the Republican side for CD 1, Anthony Figliola, Nicholas LaLota and Michelle Bond are running against each other in the primary. For CD 2, incumbent Andrew Garbarino is running against Robert Cornicelli and Mike Rakebrandt in the August primary.

For more information and to find out your congressional district, visit https://www.elections.ny.gov/district-map.html. Individuals can plug in their zip code to see what district they are in.