SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News) – Onondaga County has broken every voting record this election season, including number of registered voters, absentee ballots and early votes. The county continues to set new records every day.
“2020 has broken every record so far. We expect to break them all,” said Dustin Czarny, an Onondaga County elections commissioner.
This is the first time New York State residents have been able to vote early in a presidential election. However, voters could cast their ballot early for last year’s races.
“What we’re seeing is kind of an explosion of turnout,” Czarny said. “People are taking heed of acting early and making a plan to vote.”
Many people who are voting early are getting to the polling sites before they open. Czarny said some people have been showing up at 7 a.m. for sites that do not open until 10 a.m. Once they arrive, voters are often forced to wait in long lines. However, most early voters think it’s worth the wait.
“I feel that this is the most important election of my lifetime, and I anticipate that there will be a large swell,” said Diane Wladis, an Onondaga County resident. “I felt an immediacy to get in as soon as I can and get my vote counted.”
Due to the large number of people who have shown up to vote early, the Onondaga County Board of Elections has extended the hours for early voting.
“We decided on Monday to try to get ahead of the final weekend, which we believe will be even crazier than any of the other days, to open up earlier and give people more of a chance to get in and cast their vote in a quicker way,” Czarny said.
These extended hours are Thursday and Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Even though many people have voted early, Czarny believes there will still be a good turnout next Tuesday.
“We’ll probably still have more people go to the polls on Election Day than we did in 2019, despite 60,000 people doing absentee and 50,000 early voting, or whatever it ends up being,” Czarny said.
The deadline to request an absentee ballot in Onondaga County was yesterday. In order to make sure your ballot is counted, it must be mailed in by Election Day or dropped off at a ballot box.
