ANCHOR: New York became the 39th state in the country to create a system for early voting, and this year’s elections will be the first you can do so. NCC News’ Frankie Vernouski has when and where you can caste your ballots before Election Day.
FRANKIE VERNOUSKI: No inconvenience of having to vote during a Tuesday workday. No special registration needed. New Yorkers can now vote up to ten days before Election Day, but Professor Margaret Thompson at S-U says things won’t be perfect this year.
MARGARET THOMPSON: I think any change in the voting system needs a little time to, to build voter awareness.
FRANKIE VERNOUSKI: Dustin Czarny, Onondaga County Elections Commissioner, says early voting will be decently utilized, though, because it’ll stop one daily annoyance.
DUSTIN CZARNY: One of the things I keep hearing from voters is they can’t wait to early vote because then the phone calls stop. Because they’ve already voted.
FRANKIE VERNOUSKI: Czarny says the state and county wanted to get this done to work out all the kinks in the system before next year’s presidential election. Still, the Commissioner notes early voting is not the be-all-end-all.
DUSTIN CZARNY: There’s no one panacea to this, there’s a lot of election law changes that are coming down the pike, but I think the biggest change is that we have an engaged and enthused electorate.
FRANKIE VERNOUSKI: Of the six locations you can vote early here in Onondaga County, the Southwest Community Center is the only in the city of Syracuse, and I asked Commissioner Czarny a really tough question. Why is it important to come out to places like this and vote?
DUSTIN CZARNY: If you’re not voting, you’re taking yourself out of the conversation, so you have to vote. Vote for your values, and that will be reflected in that government that you elect.
FRANKIE VERNOUSKI: The first day for early voting is next Saturday, the 26th. You can head to our website for polling locations and times. Frankie Vernouski, NCC News.
ONONDAGA COUNTY, N.Y.—“I consider myself a pretty diligent voter,” said Margaret Thompson, a political science and history professor at Syracuse University. “But I just couldn’t make it out to vote that day.”
Thompson was referring to a General Election a few years ago where, between work and running kids around, she could not find time to get to a polling center.
The SU professor certainly represents a vast portion of Americans who struggle to get their vote out within a small window of time on a Tuesday in November.
That has especially been the case in New York. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, only 57.2 per cent of the eligible electorate voted in 2016—the eighth-worst percentage in the country.
A bill passed in the state senate and signed by Governor Andrew Cuomo earlier this year hopes to change that. Now, any registered voter can vote up to ten days in advance of an election.
“There’s no one panacea to this,” said Dustin Czarny, Commissioner of the Onondaga County Board of Elections. “There’s a lot of election law changes that are coming down the pike.”
Czarny said he expects soon that there will be automatic voter registration in the state. One aspect of that would be that once an individual receives their driver’s license, they will also be pre-registered to vote once they are 18.
But Thompson hopes to see more done.
“I’d like to see the mail-in vote,” Thompson said. “I think that would make the biggest change because that helps the disabled, people with kids, people who simply don’t have the time.”
Steps are being made, though, as New York has become the 39th state in the country to establish early voting.
The first day to cast your ballot is October 26th. Onondaga County Board of Elections has posted all early polling locations and times here.
