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For the third day, Onondaga County voters are lining up in record numbers to vote in-person before the Nov. 5 election.
Early voters also smashed records Saturday and Sunday.
But it is too early and there are too many caveats to draw any conclusions from that initial enthusiasm, said Dustin Czarny, the county’s Democratic elections commissioner.
“It’s hopping. It’s really hopping,” he said. “It’s just not indicative of anything until we know on Election Day.”
For starters, the only presidential election for comparison is 2020 – when people were not yet used to early voting and not interested in lining up with strangers in a pandemic.
While more people are voting in person this year, more people requested absentee ballots in 2020, Czarny said.
That could balance turnout by Election Day.
So far, about 12% of eligible voters have cast ballots early in person or by mail, records show.
Here is what the numbers show after two days of early voting, according to an analysis by The Post-Standard | Syracuse.com.
Enrollment
Voter enrollment has hit an all-time high. After Saturday’s deadline to register, 319,673 people are eligible to vote in the Nov. 5 election in Onondaga County.
The previous record high enrollment was in 2020, when 308,000 county residents registered. That was the highest since at least 1969, the earliest year for which the county has a total.
The deadline to register has passed.
Early voters
Early voting started Saturday and goes every day until Sunday, Nov. 3.
By the end of the day Sunday, 19,863 people had voted in person at the 10 polling sites.
In 2020, about 9,800 people voted in person on the first two days. About 59,000 people voted in person over the full nine days of early voting, records show.
Wait times are much shorter. The longest wait was 45 minutes at the DeWitt Town Hall instead of 2 and a half hours in 2020.
This year, there are four more polling places. There is also new equipment and more staff, Czarny said.
New this year: Voters can check wait times on the county website before they choose a polling place. Unlike Election Day, early voters can cast ballots at any of the 10 polling places. Poll workers can print the appropriate ballot for each voter.
Polls are open until 6 p.m. today.
Find hours and locations in our voter guide.
Turnout by party
Voters from every party are turning out in higher numbers at early polling sites. But slightly more Republicans are voting early this year. Republican leaders in the 2020 election discouraged party members from voting before Election Day. That rhetoric has changed this year, Czarny said.
About 31% of early in-person voters so far are Republican, compared to 24% in 2020.
About 42% of early in-person voters have been Democrats and 21% are not enrolled in a party, records show.
Absentee and early mail-in ballots
Fewer voters are voting by mail this year. In 2020, because of the pandemic, voters could request an absentee ballot without stating a reason. That has has continued this year for voters who request an early mail-in ballot.
Still, only 33,393 absentee and early mail-in ballots have been requested. About 18,545 have been returned so far.
In 2020, about 50,000 people voted by mail.
The deadline to request a ballot has passed.
Election Day
If you’re keeping score through Nov. 5, the number to beat is 237,500. That’s the number of people who voted in 2020. More votes were cast in 2020 than any election since 1960.
The 2020 election had 77% turnout. The highest turnout as a percentage of registered voters was in 1968, when 95% of Onondaga County’s registered voters cast ballots. That’s the year Richard Nixon beat Hubert Humphrey and George Wallace.
Contact Michelle Breidenbach | [email protected] | 315-470-3186.
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