Voting sign at the Harrietstown Town Hall in Saranac Lake (Enterprise photo — Andy Flynn)
Election Day is two weeks off, but this weekend marks the start of voting for local, state and federal races in the region, and there are several crucial deadlines coming on Saturday, Oct. 26.
Saturday, Oct. 26 is the first of eight days of early voting, the last day to register to vote and the last day to request a mail-in ballot.
Early voting in Franklin County will take place at the Courthouse Kitchen Conference Room at 355 West Main St. in Malone from Oct. 26 to Nov. 3. Voting will be open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Oct. 26, 27, 28 and 30 as well as on Nov. 1, 2, and 3. Voting will be open from noon to 8 p.m. on Oct. 29 and 31.
Early voting in Essex County will take place at the Lake Placid Beach House at 31 Parkside Dr. in Lake Placid and at the Essex County Public Safety Building at 702 Stowersville Road in Lewis from Oct. 26 to Nov. 3. Voting will be open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Oct. 26, 27, 29 and 31, as well as on Nov. 1, 2 and 3. Voting will be open from noon to 8 p.m. on Oct. 28 and 30.
The election will take place on Nov. 5 and polls in Franklin and Essex counties will be open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Franklin County Republican Election Commissioner Tracy Sparks said now is the time for voters to get answers to questions about voting methods, registration or other voting-related topics, before they head to the polls.
The Franklin County Board of Elections can be reached at 518-481-1455.
The Essex County Board of Elections can be reached at 518-873-3474.
The state Board of Elections can be reached at 518-474-1953.
To check voter registration status, polling places and other topics, go to VoterLookUp.elections.ny.gov.
“Get out and vote,” Sparks said. “Regardless of how you vote, it is important that you do vote.”
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Deadlines
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The deadline to register to vote is Saturday. Any mailed applications must have already been sent in. In-person and online registration is still open. If someone registers in person on Saturday — the last day of registration and first of early voting — they can still vote by casting an affidavit ballot.
To register online, go to tinyurl.com/sbnazp3k. For a printable PDF registration form, go to tinyurl.com/v3t9kezu.
Any change of address must also have already been received by the board.
Saturday is the deadline to apply to vote by early mail or by absentee ballot. A state portal to make an application can be found at tinyurl.com/23b6me5m. Early mail and absentee ballots can be returned in person at the board of election office until Nov. 4.
Mail’s here
Essex County Republican Election Commissioner Jack Moulton said election officials are all prepared for voting to start this weekend.
For people who haven’t voted since the last presidential election, there will be some changes they should know about, he said.
“A lot has changed in the last four years,” Moulton said.
“We’ve had a huge amount of absentee ballots and early vote by mail ballots,” he said. “Much higher than past years.”
This is because this is the first New York election with early vote by mail ballots. This new state law allows any registered voter to get a mail-in ballot, regardless of their reason for wanting to vote absentee. Before the law was passed, voters needed to meet certain criteria to be eligible to vote absentee.
“It’s just an additional option for people to make it easier for them to vote,” Moulton said.
As of Wednesday, the Essex County Board of Elections had processed 2,226 requests for ballots by mail — 1,461 absentee ballots and 765 early votes by mail.
As of Wednesday, 877 absentees had been returned and 430 early votes by mail had been returned.
A total of 2,083 people requested absentee and early vote by mail ballots so far in Franklin County. As of Tuesday, 1,220 had been returned — 807 absentees and 413 early votes by mail.
Sparks said these votes are opened daily, but not tallied until early voting starts. The results of the tallies are not released until Election Day.
When voters enter the polling place to vote, the poll books with their name, address and other information will be on electronic tablets instead of paper books as they had been in the last presidential election.
There are also new ballot machines, but they work the same way as the old ones.
For early voting, the county now has ballot print-on-demand machines to get the lines move faster.
Changes in election law since the 2022 election state that if a voter requests an absentee ballot, they are not longer permitted by vote by machine on election day or during the early voting period. Previously, voters who requested absentee ballots could vote by machine, and one vote would be invalidated.
Now, if an absentee ballot is requested, the voter is required to vote using that method. They could still vote by affidavit on Election Day. These affidavit ballots would not be fed into the machine at the poll site. They go through a verification process and are scanned later at the board of election offices.
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Registered voters
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There are 26,927 registered voters in Franklin County according to Furman. The U.S. Census Bureau estimated the county’s total population at 46,373 in 2022.
Of the 26,927 registered voters, 9,428 are Democrats and 9,314 are Republicans, nearly a 50/50 split between the two major parties.
There are 6,039 voters who are not affiliated with any political party in Franklin County.
“We’ve had a very large increase in ‘no party,’” Republican Deputy Commissioner Bridget Furman said last month.
Voters not affiliated with any party has always had a large contingent, she said, but they’ve noticed it getting bigger this year. Furman said to-date, this year there are 386 new “no party” voters, either new voters or people changing their registration.
In Franklin County, there are also 389 registered Conservatives and 116 registered in the Working Families party.
There are 1,567 registered in “other” parties. These are independent parties not recognized by New York state. The state only recognizes political parties after they run a candidate for governor or president who earns either 130,000 votes, or 2% of all votes cast for the office, whichever is greater.
There are 27,810 registered voters in Essex County, according to county Board of Elections data. The U.S. Census Bureau estimated the county’s total population at 36,910 in 2022.
Of the 27,810 registered voters, 8,241 are Democrats and 11,280 are Republicans. Of the two major parties, there is a 42% to 58% split with Republicans having a majority.
There are 6,283 voters who are not affiliated with any political party in Essex County.
There are also 316 registered Conservatives and 149 registered in the Working Families party.
There are 1,589 registered in “other” parties in Essex County.