Voter turnout this year was high for a midterm election, according to Onondaga County's two elections commissioners, but not quite as high as in a presidential election year.
As of Wednesday, 57% of Onondaga County voters had participated in the 2026 general election, according to Democratic Elections Commissioner Dustin Czarny, who adds that is likely to increase.
"That number's going to grow over the next couple of weeks as we add in all the vote-by-mail ballots that come in between now and Tuesday, all the affidavit ballots over the next week. You know, we could see it around 58, 59 percent," says Czarny.
The figure is much higher than the last gubernatorial election in 2022 when turnout was 52%, he noted.
He credits early voting, which attracted more than 58,000 voters. Czarny is "really excited" about that because he believes it takes the stress off the voting system with a much smoother day on Election Day itself.
"I think it shows that early voting is growing and it's here to stay," says Czarny.
Republican Elections Commissioner Kevin Ryan said voter turnout was heavy.
"It wasn't quite presidential levels but it was very close ... much more than you would get in an odd-year election and much more than ... in the gubernatorial election last time in 2022, so it was a very high turnout," says Ryan.
CLOSE RACES
Czarny identified four races that he considers within the window of possibly requiring a hand count to determine the winner.
"If the winner or loser is less than .5 percent, we have to actually hand count and physically inspect the ballot," he said.
The closest race is Assembly District 126 in which Ian Phillips leads by .38%, or 223 votes. Czarny said it is possible Phillips' lead will grow by the time both Cayuga County and Onondaga County certify the result. So, a hand count is still possible in that race.
In addition, two races for seats on the Onondaga County Legislature had close vote counts. In district 14, Democrat Jessica Dapson had an .86% lead, which is currently beyond the parameter for a hand count but additional ballots could change it. At the same time, Justin Neal beat incumbent Brian May in legislative district 1 by about 1.26%.
Czarny also mentioned the race for town supervisor in Pompey where Diana Carpenter held on for an election night lead of .76% over David Angello.
"Those are the four races I'm watching," said Czarny
TERM LIMITS
Ryan said voters overwhelmingly approved the proposition for for three, four-year terms, for a total of 12 years.
"So going forward, the county comptroller and the county executive will have term limits of three terms," he added.
Czarny had this to say about the term-limits propositions.
"Kudos to the Onondaga County legislative Democratic caucus who stood up for the rule of law here and fought for what they believed - and ultimately proven right - that the voters wanted a 12-year [term-limit option]," Czarny said.
The other proposition for a four-term limit was also approved but didn't get the support that voters gave to the three-term option.
