By Staff Reporter
BUFFALO — Across Western New York on Saturday, “No Kings” rallies sounded less like a single protest slogan and more like a turnout operation. Speakers in Niagara Square, Lockport, Hamburg, East Aurora and Williamsville tied anger at the Trump administration to a concrete calendar: New York early voting runs Oct. 24 through Nov. 1, with Election Day on Nov. 3.
Buffalo Toronto Public Media, WIVB and The Buffalo News covered the local events as part of a national day of action that organizers said included more than 2,000 gatherings. In Buffalo, Mayor Sean Ryan and Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz appeared at Niagara Square. The Chronicle’s focus is who is accountable for turnout machinery — parties, county boards of elections, and the elected officials asking people to show up — and what “vote early” means when midterm races in Niagara County have often gone uncontested.
Mr. Ryan told the Niagara Square crowd that people who sat out the last presidential election helped shape what Buffalo gets, or does not get, from Washington, BTPM reported. He contrasted infrastructure money under the Biden administration with the current federal approach.
“What we getting out of this guy? Nothing but trouble,” Mr. Ryan said. “We got tax cuts for the billionaires. We’re cutting food stamps on working class people. We’re getting rid of DEI initiatives all across the federal government, and we’re laying off needed federal workers. That ain’t right, is it?”
He also objected to federal pressure on Canada, a daily fact of life for a border city. “Who in the world would pick a fight with Canada?” he said. “You can’t have more friendly neighbors. We can’t have a more open relationship going across that Peace Bridge, and to try to convince the American people that somehow Canadians are villains, that is a tough job to do.”
Early voting as the organizing ask
Cheektowaga Town Supervisor Brian Nowak, speaking in Niagara Square, treated early voting as both convenience and political insurance. “There’s nine days of early voting. I would get out there and do it right away. You don’t know what your schedule is going to be like on election day,” Mr. Nowak said, according to BTPM. “And please take someone with you and make sure that you get your vote in early, because we need to get such a high voter turnout all over the place, to make sure that this rhetoric of elections being stolen or not being done fairly can be overwhelmed by such a decisive victory that the president and his supporters cannot make any excuse about how those election results turn out.”
Mr. Nowak also defended Erie County election workers as professionals who recount close races carefully — a direct reply to years of fraud claims that local clerks and commissioners have had to absorb.
Co-organizer Stephanie Mejia of the WNY Peace Center put the same calendar in kitchen-table terms, WIVB reported (via AOL). “Everyone should be exercising their civic duty to vote, to vote early on October 24 or vote on Election Day,” Ms. Mejia said. “Understanding that right now, everything from gas prices, to food, to healthcare, I think everyone can agree that they want affordable healthcare, they want to be able to put gas in their car, put food on the table for their family, then go vote.”
Contested races — or empty ballots
In Lockport, Stand Up Lockport organizer Gloria told BTPM she had expected about 100 people and already counted at least 200 early in the morning. “It’s about voting,” she said. “It’s about registering to vote. It’s like this is your time. Get your vote out. This is when you need to speak. It’s a superpower. We need to vote.”
Local Democrats there argued that low turnout in Niagara County often follows ballots with no challenger. Zachary Parker, a member of the City of Lockport Democratic Committee, said the party had worked to field candidates for every office this year. “We need people to run for every single office because you don’t know how the year is going to shake out, and you don’t want somebody to say, ‘Well, why should I go vote when there’s nobody running for state assembly, when there’s nobody running for state senate, when there’s nobody running for my county (legislature) position?’” Mr. Parker said.
Donna Dye Sholk, the Democratic candidate in the 144th Assembly District against incumbent Paul Bologna, cast contested races as the point of showing up. “That’s really democracy. The voters deserve a choice, whatever they decide,” she said. “It’s their choice, and they should have somebody. When they actually take the energy to go to the poll, they should have someone to vote for.”
The other party’s frame
Erie County Republican Chairman Michael Krocker answered the protests by saying Republicans were “out talking to voters about how we can lower costs, cut taxes, and end rising crime,” according to WIVB. That is the competing accountability claim: that turnout messaging from the left is theater while the governing argument is prices and public safety.
Both frames will be tested at the same machines. County boards of elections run early-voting sites; parties and independent groups fill candidate slots; mayors and supervisors who stand on Niagara Square cannot mark anyone’s ballot for them. What Saturday’s rallies made visible is the gap organizers fear most — between people who will hold a sign and people who will stand in an early-voting line between Oct. 24 and Nov. 1.
The Buffalo Chronicle is seeking comment from the Erie County and Niagara County boards of elections on early-voting site hours and from Mr. Poloncarz’s office on the county’s own turnout goals for the midterm. Any responses will be added to this story.
Featured photo: Buffalo City Hall at Niagara Square. Photo by w_lemay via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0.
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