SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News) – Local government officials have begun to put into place the early voting laws that the state government signed into law earlier this year that could save both state and local governments money.
This will be the first year in New York that early voting methods are used. Instead of only being able to physically go to the polls on one day, voters can vote for 10 days prior to Election Day.
The big question left surrounding the issue is how the changes will pay for the changes.
The governor’s proposed budget leaves $7 million to help pay for the implementation, but that most likely will not cover everything as a whole.
Dustin Czarney, the Democratic election commissioner for Onondaga County, said the costs to implement will be too much for local governments to bear on their own.
“We’re looking for New York state to come in with some funding to offset some of these costs that early voting will put on the county seats,” Czarney said.
Thomas Brown, the Democratic election commissioner for Cortland County, believes some of the other changes could help save both the state and local governments money to ultimately spend elsewhere.
“One of the things the state did that will help towards the cost it has combined the federal and local primaries,” Brown said. “We’re not running two primary elections a year now, we’re having one which is a cost-benefit.”
Czarney estimated that it cost New York between $10-$25 million to run two separate primaries in 2016. So by combining the two primaries into one, the government can save millions of dollars.
Other changes to election laws include pre-registration to minors, offering same-day registration, and making Election Day a state holiday.
All of these are an effort to help raise New York’s voter turnout rate, which is one of the lowest in the country according to fairvote.org.
