SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News)- Tuesday’s election will not involve any national positions, driving voter participation down. Historically, local elections see much lower voter turnout than midterm or presidential election years. Onondaga County Democratic Election Commissioner Dustin Czarny says he has high hopes for this election.
“50% would be outstanding turnout for a local election, I would love to be wrong, but that would be breaking all kinds of records,” said Czarny. “Presidentials are in the mid-seventies, and mid-sixties for midterms, that’s a really good turnout.”
According to Onondaga County voter data, the county as a whole has a much higher percentage of voters reporting than the state of New York or the United States. In fact, this difference is quite large. In the general and midterm elections since 2010, Onondaga County’s voter participation regularly sits 10 to 20 percentage points higher than New York or the US. Specifically, in the last presidential election year, Onondaga County saw an almost 75% voter participation rate – which is almost 25% greater than the national rate. Czarny says this is very important for creating a representative government.
“If you’re not having a high voter turnout then you’re getting a government controlled by fewer and fewer people,” said Czarny. “Then we stop getting good communication, and then we get a government that maybe doesn’t represent us all.”
Onondaga County should see even higher participation this election due to the newly offered early voting option.
