Registered Democrats lead record-breaking early voter turnout in Onondaga Co. so far
ONONDAGA COUNTY, N.Y. — Early voting turnout in Onondaga County remained high on Monday as voters continued to wait in long lines to cast their ballots.
Nearly 10,000 people voted early over the weekend, surpassing last year’s early voting turnout within two days. Onondaga County Democratic Election Commissioner Dustin Czarny said over 6,000 more voters cast their ballots early on Monday before polls officially closed.
“It definitely talks about enthusiasm, talks about people valuing democracy, and acting right now. We expected higher turnout this year and I continue to expect it,” Czarny says.
The Republican Election Commissioner, Michele Sardo, agrees, forecasting record-breaking turnout overall in the general election.
“To predict, it’s going to be record-breaking. I’m going to predict between 80 and 85 percent,” Sardo says.
Over the weekend, voters under 30 accounted for 1,225 of the turnout.
Registered Democrats have so far turned out more than registered Republicans, accounting for more than half of the vote over the weekend.
“Registered Democrats are tending to turn out a little more than the Republicans, we'll see if that trend continues,” Czarny says.
That trend continues with absentee ballots as well, but someone's political party doesn’t necessarily translate to who someone will vote for.
“It doesn’t matter which party you are it depends who you vote for,” Sardo says.
This is the first time New York State has had early voting for a presidential election—and it's exceeding all expectations.
“It was beyond our expectations, beyond anything that we even imagined happening and it's continuing. We are seeing about 1,000 voters an hour being processed all weekend long and continuing today so it’s great to see for democracy and were doing our best to accommodate that,” Czarny says.
You have until November 1 to do early voting—and the Board of Elections has extended their poll hours to 8 am to 3 pm for this upcoming weekend because of the long lines they saw this past weekend.
