Turnout records broken in early voting period in North Country
PLATTSBURGH — If the North Country early voting totals are any indication, turnout at the polls today should be quite brisk.
A total of 8,933 people voted in Clinton County during the nine-day early voting period from Oct. 26 to Nov. 3, breaking the record of 7,665 set in 2020, which was also a presidential election year.
"We don't have a lot to compare it too, but this was the most ever," Clinton County Board of Elections Republican Commissioner David Souliere IV said.
Essex County also set a record for most early voters with 4,019 showing up to cast ballots, and Franklin County also broke a record withg 3,378 people voting.
Early voting began in New York state in 2019.
It was used widely during the 2020 presidential election, which was also affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Souliere said that voting was steady throughout the nine-day period this year, with last Tuesday setting a record for the most voters in one day when 1,230 people cast ballots.
This past Saturday was the lowest total with 755 voting.
"It was pretty steady all the way through, but it was manageable," Souliere said.
"No one waited a tremendous amount of time to vote. Most of the time the line was less than five minutes."
Souliere said that between early voting and absentee ballots, about 11,000 people have already voted in the election.
"We will probably see somewhere around 34,000 people vote total, so that's about 30% of people that are going to vote who have voted already," he said.
Souliere said there were no problems with early voting, which was all done at the Clinton County Government Center.
"The poll workers did a great job and the office staff here does a fantastic job preparing," he said.
"We've been preparing for a year for this election, probably two years for this one election, so there was a lot of work that went into it, and we are glad to see that it went off without a hitch."
The county handed out about 4,700 absentee ballots this year, and Souliere said that all but about 800 have already been returned.
The county can accept absentee ballots from voters until Nov. 12 for regular voters, and Nov. 18 for overseas and military voters as long as they are postmarked by Nov. 5.
All absentee ballots and early voting totals will be included in the vote totals at the end of Election Day when the polls close at 9 p.m. tonight.
"It's not like years past... like in 2020, you had 7,000 absentee ballots being canvassed days after the election," Souliere said.
"That's not the case anymore. About 90% of those (absentee ballots) will be reflected tomorrow night so we should have a pretty clear idea."
The Board of Elections will have live results on their web page at clintoncountyny.gov/boe Tuesday night after the polls close to notify the public of results. Souliere said they hope to update the totals every 15 minutes if possible.
Polls are open today throughout Clinton, Essex and Franklin Counties as well as the rest of the state and nation from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. for all those who have not already voted.
