A record number of people took advantage of early voting in Onondaga County during this local election year. Onondaga County Democratic Elections Commissioner Dustin Czarny said just over 17,000 people voted early this year.
“This is a 41% increase from 2023, the last local year, and the last record, which was only about 12,000 early voters,” said Czarny.
Early voting became an option in New York State in 2019. Czarny said as the years have gone by, it’s grown in popularity among voters.
“They like the convenience of it,” he said. “We've kept basically the same sites for the last four years. So they know where the sites are, they know what the hours are, and campaigns are getting used to pushing their voters to early voting to make sure that they bank those votes before Election Day.”
In addition, some competitive races in the county this year have helped.
"We have county legislature races, town races, and of course the mayor's race in the city of Syracuse," Czarny said.
Party-wise, Democrats were twice as likely to use the early voting option than Republicans. And the local numbers dwarf early voting tallies from even year elections. Last year, a presidential election year, 77,000 people voted early in Onondaga County.
Polls open on Tuesday for in-person voting from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.
