DEWITT, N.Y. (NCC News) — Early voters formed a lengthy line at 11 a.m, an hour before polls opened, on a soggy Tuesday morning at DeWitt Town Hall, one of the county’s early voting sites. It is a scene we’ve become used to this week, as voter turnout has reached impressive highs in Onondaga County.
As of Tuesday morning, 18% of registered voters in the county had already cast a ballot. Much of the enthusiasm can be attributed to the presidential election, Board of Election Commissioner Dustin Czarny told NCC News on Monday.
The race between incumbent Donald Trump (R) and Joe Biden (D) might have New Yorkers rushing to the polls, but the state is not considered a battleground in the electorate. In contrast with the 24th congressional race between John Katko (R) and Dana Balter (D), which the latest polls suggest is a razor tight race, the presidential race is a forgone conclusion, polls show.
New York hasn’t elected a Republican for president since Ronald Raegan in 1984. That means the state’s 29 votes in the electoral college have gone exclusively to the Democratic candidate on an every-four-year basis for decades. Since the popular vote does not decide who becomes president, it’s natural that some New York voters might feel their vote does not matter, because the state is likely to elect the democratic candidate regardless. Regardless of how New Yorkers vote, it will only count for 29 of the 538 electorates.
Here’s some things early voters had to say, while standing on line to vote at DeWitt Town Hall Tuesday morning, speaking to NCC News:
“Right now I feel like it’s hard for my vote to count at all just because of the way that the way the system is skewed it’s hard to feel like you’re being heard.”
“One drop of water may not matter but a million drops of water can wear down stone. so i think that every single person here matters.”
“New York is generally a democratic (state), so you know, I wasn’t worried about it. But this election is different”
Of the eight voters who agreed to speak with NCC News on the record, only one supported the electoral college.
