LITTLE VALLEY - Cattaraugus County lawmakers on Wednesday approved a local law extending the County Legislature's weighted voting system for four years.

The weighted vote was 19.91 votes to 1.08 votes. The only legislator voting no was James Ellis, R-Otto.

The weighted voting system, which was enacted in 2005 to ensure the one-person, one-vote principle of U.S. Supreme Court rulings, assigns a numerical number to legislators in each of the 10 election districts in the county based on the number of residents in their respective districts.

The 21-member County Legislature voted in 2003 to reapportion, based on the 2000 census, and to reduce the number of legislators to 17.

A Delevan man, David Wright, challenged the action in state Supreme Court last year, claiming that the earlier weighted voting plan represented a form of reapportionment, or redistricting. Because redistricting can be done only once each decade, the 17-member County Legislature plan should be ruled invalid, he maintained.

While Acting State Supreme Court Judge Larry Himelein dismissed the suit, Mr. Wright appealed to the Appellate Division of state Supreme Court and won a reversal of Judge Himelein's decision in June, just as petitions were about to be circulated by candidates for the 17-member County Legislature.

All 21 seats on the County Legislature are at stake in the Nov. 6 election.

Legislator William Sprague, D-Yorkshire, was the sponsor of the weighted voting extension to Dec. 31, 2011. He was joined by other members of the County Operations Committee, except Jerry E. Burrell, R-Franklinville, who is also county Republican Party chairman.

As the only legislator speaking against the resolution, Mr. Ellis said the Appellate Court ruling was "a travesty of justice that one man can thumb his nose" at everyone else.

Legislature Vice Chairman Michael O'Brien, R-Portville, said the plan to reduce the number of county lawmakers from 21 to 17 "lost on a technicality." That will come at a cost to the taxpayers of four more legislators than intended for the next four years.

Kenneth "Bucky" McClune, D-Salamanca, said, "It's not the taxpayers that lost." The 17-member plan "would have assured the majority party (Republicans) would have four more years" in power. Democrats, he noted, have held power for only two years out of the county's 199-year history.

Mr. Sprague said lawmakers had no choice but to extend the weighted voting system. "I don't believe taxpayers lost that much," he said, noting Democrats three years ago had killed a GOP plan to increase the county sales tax by .75 percent. The 17-member plan was gerrymandering that "would pretty much eliminated the Democratic Party."

Democrat Carmen Vecchiarella of Salamanca said, "If we don't pass this by Jan. 1, we won't be able to vote."

Olean Democrat Michael McLaughlin disputed Mr. O'Brien's contention that the unanimous ruling of the Appellate Court was a "technicality."

IN OTHER ACTION, legislators:

- recommended to state lawmakers that the current system of electing local town and village justices be maintained instead of adopting a system of regionally appointed judges in each county;

- accepted a $49,428 bid from Transcontinental Printing, Quebec, Canada, for printing the 2008 County Activities Guide, plus $21,168 for printing and inserting a fold-out county map;

- accepted a $121,000 state Homeland Security grant through the county Department of Emergency Services; and

- requested an increase in state and federal aid for bridges and culverts in the county that are deficient. A new rating shows 28 percent of the county's bridges and 55 percent of its culverts are deficient.