Early voting for Tuesday’s primaries is under way in New York. Capital Region voters view the process favorably, despite apparent low turnout.
New Yorkers have had 10 days before an election to get to the polls since 2019. The primaries for local races in this off-year aren’t getting as much attention as a presidential race, but local voters who spoke with WAMC say they appreciate the flexibility.
Margie Job of Brunswick, in Rensselaer County, says it makes democratic participation more convenient.
“You know what I like, is like in November, I work on Election Day. And now I can just go on the weekends and vote and I don't have to worry about getting here after work," Job says.
Also stopping in at the town offices to vote, Brunswick’s Brian Nealon says that the biggest change is how long the process takes.
“Two minutes,” instead of “about an hour," Nealon said.
Nealon says he’s an early voting convert now.
Francis Graham, of Troy, with his wife Jane, says that he was especially motivated to vote early this year.
“We know the young- one of these young ladies running in the primary. And so that's why we're here today to give her a vote," Graham said.
Despite the simplicity of the process, Graham did have one complaint: location, referring to a long-running legal battle over the number and location of early voting sites in the county.
“I was very surprised that I went all the way out to Brunswick to vote in a Troy primary," Graham said.
There are only two other locations in Rensselaer County to vote in the primaries, in Castleton, and on Federal Street in Troy.
On the other side of the river, WAMC spent nearly an hour outside the Albany County Board of Elections Thursday morning, with no voters arriving. County workers said they’d had fewer than 60 people come in during the first several days of early voting. Kathleen Donovan is County Democratic Elections Commissioner:
“Well, it's a primary and there's not that many primaries running. So the turnout is very low," Donovan said.
Donovan says local races might be more obscure than the campaign for the White House, but…
“People generally think the bigger offices are the more important ones. But actually, it's the smaller races that are more important to your average person. It's your mayor, your councilman, that make the decisions that really affect your life for you know, on a day-to-day basis. So those are the races that they really should be concentrating on. Not the- not- not to say not to concentrate on the big ones, but the small ones are just as important, if not more," Donovan said.
A bill proposed by State Senator James Skoufis, an Orange County Democrat, would shift local elections to even years to coincide with larger races. Advocates say it would boost turnout, while Republicans accuse Democrats of trying to capitalize on bigger elections to boost turnout for their own ends.
Donovan says that she’s not in favor of the idea.
“I think that it would make for a bigger ballot, which, you know, voters tend to start to drift off as they start, you know, filling up the circles," Donovan said.
Donovan says that would only hurt turnout in an area that doesn’t come out early in off years.
“Probably a quarter of the people that turn out come for early voting, somewhere between a quarter and a half," Donovan said.
Donovan says you also need contested races to bring out voters.
Early voting continues through Sunday.
