In June, Onondaga County had very low voter turnout for primary elections, which county Democratic Elections Commissioner Dustin Czarny said seems to be par for the course.
However, he said since the poor turnout earlier this year, he’s seen a slight increase in voter registration.
“We are seeing an uptick in voter registration over the last couple of months,” said Czarny. “But it's nowhere near like what it is during a presidential year.”
As Czarny said, it’s not a presidential election year but it is a big year for local elections. There are a number of county legislature seats on the ballot and, this year, Syracuse residents will be voting for a mayor.
He’s also seen an increase in absentee ballot requests now that anyone can request them because of the pandemic.
“When compared to 2017 and 2019, we are already getting more absentee ballot requests and we did at this time during that election,” he said.
As of June, only about 63% of eligible Syracuse residents were registered to vote. There’s a number of ways to register, including just filling out a form at the county’s board of elections on Erie Boulevard West in Syracuse, and Czarny hopes that soon you can even register right from your own home.
“I look forward to tools like online and automatic voter registration, which will come online next year, which will help us combat this low voter registration rate,” said Czarny.
For those not yet registered to vote, the deadline is the end of the day this Friday, October 8. To learn more about how to register to vote in Onondaga County click here.
