Tri-county area BOEs reported no issues as voters headed to the polls

PLATTSBURGH — As of late afternoon Tuesday, tri-county board of election commissioners reported having a smooth day at the polls.

Essex County Republican Commissioner Jack Moulton said it was the best case scenario for voters on Election Day.

"Haven't had any issues with wait time here in Essex County," Moulton said.

"Everything's been really smooth. We've got great poll workers. We got a lot of help this year, so everything's been running well."

Polls in New York were open from 6 a.m to 9 p.m. Tuesday. With a presidential race on the ballot, voters came out in high numbers to pick between former Republican President Donald J. Trump and Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris.

At midday, Moulton said they were closing in on about 10,000 votes cast on Tuesday alone but were at 14,000 with early voting included. He said there were about 1,500 to 2,000 absentee ballots as well.

At the conclusion of the 2020 presidential election, Essex County finished with around 19,000 votes, Moulton said.

"So it's close, definitely by nine, I think we'll be there," he said, referring to 2020's turnout.

"I'll be curious to see if it ends up being higher or not."

In Clinton County, Board of Elections Democratic Commissioner Mary Dyer said voter turnout was "heavy."

"All over the county," she said close to 6 p.m.

As of 4 p.m., Republican Commissioner David Souliere IV said towns like Peru had 1,600 voters and Beekmantown had over 1,200. Similarly, Black Brook Town Hall, one of the smaller sites in the county, had "a line out to the road."

"Turnout is just extremely high all around. I know that," Souliere said

Similar to Essex County, Dyer said they hadn't experienced any issues as the community came out to vote. She said there weren't any long wait times either.

"I think maybe the most somebody might have to wait is, maybe, 10 minutes," she said.

"Everything's been very smooth," Souliere said.

"We haven't had any complaints at all. To be honest with you, the poll sites seem to be managing things pretty well. They were pretty well organized going into it. So things seem to be flowing pretty well."

He said there were no major electioneering issues as well, which is illegal within 100 feet of any poll sites in New York and can look like campaigning, wearing clothing supportive of one candidate or handing out political propaganda.

"Usually, we do have issues with ... instances of electioneering, but our poll inspectors are really taught to de-escalate those situations, and honestly today, we haven't had anything reported to our board as far as electioneering issues," Souliere said.

"There were a couple of poll sites where signs had to be adjusted to go outside of the 100 feet, but they were just yard sign issues; they weren't anything that was violent or an issue."

Franklin County Board of Elections Democratic Deputy Commissioner Eric Barney said they did not have any voter turnout numbers to report yet as of 6 p.m.

"We won't have any numbers until the equipment gets back here, after everybody's packed up, and then we start loading up results," he said.

Barney also said there were no significant issues to report as voters went to the polls. There were no wait times either.

"To the best of our knowledge, there hasn't really been any," Barney said.

"Everything's going fairly smoothly, and there hasn't been any issues of that kind."