Syracuse, N.Y. (NCC News) — In the aftermath of Election Day, Onondaga County Election Commissioner Dustin Czarney said the board of elections learned a lot. A glitch in the system used to upload results caused a delay in announcing the results.
The 2019 general election featured new components including early voting and a new electronic sign-in system.
“It got us ready for next year,” Czarney said. “Next year’s the big one and we wanted to get a couple of dry runs in before the big presidential election next November.”
The new electronic poll pads are a feature Czarney said were implemented due to the addition of early voting but they had a variety of benefits.
“We only had a wait time of about seven minutes at any polling site from the time somebody got in line and most of the time it was less than that,” he said. “It only took them about 45 seconds to be processed at every poll book. We got to see throughout the day what the voter turnout was which is not something we were able to see before.”
Czarney said about 8,000 people in the county took advantage of the new early voting opportunity. He said he believes the county executive race is what brought most people to the polls.
“The county executive race where you’ve got several million dollars being spent on both sides, that contributed to high turnout,” said Czarney. “And I think its something that shows if you field competitive candidates you are going to get good turnout.”
