VIDEO transcript
Luke Backman: Early Voting, you’ve heard of it before, but what exactly does it do? Is it solely for the people who don’t have time on November 5th to go to the polls or does it just mean your vote gets counted quicker?
As many people begin to make plans for November 5th, a viable option for them might be actually before Election Day in their own county.
As the ability to cast their vote before the day of the election could save them an immense amount of time.
Nicole Walsh: Early Voting allows voters a chance to come out and vote on their convenience instead of being trapped in the normal 15-hour period that we are normally open for on Election Day.
LB: It’s clear people here in Syracuse are taking advantage of the benefits of early voting. Since early voting opened just a few days ago there’s been a record amount of turnout voting in person before the November 5th election. This is a sign that’s leaved many people encouraged.
Dustin Czarny: We expected it, I’m not sure we expected it this much, but we prepared for it. It’s encouraging. We don’t know what this means though, right? Early voting has been around since 2019 and it’s different every year. Sometimes you get a whole bunch of people early voting but they were regular people who were going to vote on election day and so you don’t see a turnout spike or anything like that. We’ll have to see what this early vote meant.
LB: While we won’t know the final numbers until after the election, candidates like Tim Kelly who is running for State Assembly, are continuing to campaign all the way until the final day.
Tim Kelly: Trying to just continue to go knock on doors and talk to as many people as I can and let them know who I am so that when they go to the voting booth they have an informed chance in front of them so they know who they’re talking to.
LB: If you would like to vote before Election Day make sure to go online and find your local polling station.
Luke Backman, NCC News
Syracuse , N.Y. (NCC News) – On Saturday October 26th, early voting opened up all around the state of New York including Syracuse. As Onondaga County opened up their seven polling stations, the Board of Elections wasn’t completely sure what to expect this year. But what they’ve gotten has become record breaking.
As the end of the fourth day of early voting concludes, close to 39,000 people have already voted and the Board of Elections is believing they will get close to reaching 100,000 by November 3rd, when early voting ends.
This comes only five years after early voting was implemented in New York State and the COVID-19 Pandemic discouraged many voters from in person polling when it came to the 2020 presidential election.

Additionally Dustin Czarny and the Board of Elections have added a new faucet to early voting, that they believe has helped bring voters to the poll. This year they added an online stopwatch to help people know how long a wait time is at a given poll. Czarny says that this year, the average wait time has only been seven minutes, and that it has been able to continue to get more people in and out of the polls quickly.
While voters have been able to efficiently get in and out of the polls, candidates are continuing to campaign all the way until the final day. Tim Kelly, a candidate for New York State Assembly, stopped by DeWitt Town Hall to put up some of his signs and to meet potential voters.
Kelly is also a fan of the early voting as he said both and his wife were up and out first thing Saturday morning to cast their vote. He believes a simple reason as to this is that “people are passionate about having their voice heard this year.”

Kelly is likely onto something as while obviously this is a highly debated presidential election, we are also in the middle of a highly contested congressional election with Brandon Williams and John Mannion. Which also could be a driving force in why voters have been coming out to the polls at record numbers.
As November 5th approaches and Election Day gets closer and closer, people all across Syracuse will have an option to be able to vote. Their decision not only lies with what candidates they will choose, but also when they will get out to the polls.