By Sean Gallagher
BUFFALO — Polls open at 6 a.m. today across New York and close at 9 p.m. Anyone in line at 9 p.m. can still vote.
Nearly 100,000 Erie County voters have already cast ballots. The county’s final adjusted early-voting total was 99,283, including 9,305 on Sunday, the ninth and last day, according to Board of Elections commissioners Ralph Mohr and Howard J. Johnson Jr., WGRZ reported.
Statewide, the number is roughly 2 million. State Board of Elections figures reported by WENY put early in-person voting at 1,965,043 and returned mail ballots at 145,865.
Early voting is way up. That doesn’t settle turnout.
“Just shy of two million New Yorkers turned out in those nine days of early voting,” Kathleen McGrath, the state Board of Elections’ director of public information, told Spectrum News 1. “In 2022, we had 1.17 million New Yorkers participate in those nine days of early voting. So it is up significantly from four years ago.”
That is an increase of nearly 67%. But Shawn Donahue, a University at Buffalo political scientist, cautioned that early votes may simply be Election Day votes cast sooner.
“A lot of people are getting text messages, phone calls, people knocking doors, encouraging them to early vote,” Donahue said. “Because if the Democratic Party or the Republican Party thinks that you’re going to be a voter for them when the votes are counted, they aren’t having to track you down on Election Day.”
McGrath said she expects a big day anyway. “Expect to see a huge turnout,” she said. “There’s a lot of people that really like to vote on Election Day, even when you offer various mail ballots and the nine days of early voting. A lot of people just like that buzz and excitement of going on Election Day.”
Where to vote
Today is different from early voting in one key way: you must vote at your assigned polling place. Early-voting sites that served everyone in the county last week are not open to all voters today.
Erie County voters can look up their polling place with the Board of Elections’ voter search tool or call the board at 716-858-8891. Voters in other counties should check with their county board of elections.
What’s on the ballot
The governor’s race between Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul and Republican Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman tops the ballot. Western New Yorkers will also choose members of Congress, the state Senate and Assembly, and county legislators, along with a crowded State Supreme Court race, according to WGRZ.
The Buffalo Chronicle profiled several of the region’s state legislative contests before Election Day:
- 145th Assembly District
- 143rd Assembly District
- 144th Assembly District
- 146th Assembly District
- 63rd State Senate District
Local ballot questions are on the ballot in Amherst, Cheektowaga, North Tonawanda and Somerset, and there are mayoral races in Wellsville and Salamanca, WGRZ reported.
Buffalo’s 11 charter questions
Buffalo voters will see 11 proposed amendments to the City Charter. Each question passes or fails on its own.
The proposals cover financial oversight, how City Hall vacancies and acting positions are handled, a civilian police advisory commission, a Commission on Human Rights and a task force to study changes to city elections, Spectrum News 1 reported.
Proposition 8 has drawn the most attention. It would require the mayor to give the city comptroller key budget estimates by April 1. The comptroller would have until April 15 to review them, and the Common Council could lower the mayor’s revenue estimates with a two-thirds vote.
Council Finance Committee Chair Mitch Nowakowski backs the change. “I think that this added layer of oversight will help move our branches of government to work better together, so that when we’re relying on and working through our finances, we’re having accurate numbers to be debated on,” he told Spectrum News 1.
Council Majority Leader Leah Halton-Pope pointed to how the questions were written. “What’s really important to understand is that the commission itself is made up of not elected officials, but citizens in the city of Buffalo,” she said. “So prior to coming up with these proposals, they had a lot of public hearings.”
After 9 p.m.
Counting begins when polls close. Early-vote totals usually post first, followed by Election Day results by district. Absentee and mail ballots that arrive after Election Day are counted later, and close races may not be settled tonight. Results are unofficial until they are certified.
The Buffalo Chronicle will report results as official counts come in.
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