Essex County early in-person voting on pace to break record
LAKE PLACID — Elections officials are reporting a “very strong” early voter turnout so far this cycle in Essex County.
Between the start of early voting on Saturday, Oct. 26 and the end of poll hours Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2,232 ballots have been cast in Essex County, according to Jennifer Fifield, who serves as a deputy commissioner for the county Board of Elections.
These numbers are for ballots cast in-person and do not include any mail-in ballots that have been received so far by the county.
“Our first day alone, we probably tripled any past high watermark in terms of a single-day early vote turnout,” she said.
Essex County turnout already exceeded the total number of early in-person votes cast during 2022 — 1,457 — and was approaching the last presidential General Election, in 2020, early in-person vote of 2,518 — with over half of the early in-person voting period to go. Early voting ends on Sunday.
Essex County has two early voting locations for residents to choose from. They can cast their ballot — no matter where in the county they live — in either Lake Placid or Lewis. Fifield said that by the end of Tuesday, Oct. 29, 1,327 votes had been cast at the Lake Placid location — the Mirror Lake Beach House, 31 Parkside Dr. — and 905 ballots had been cast at the Lewis location — the Essex County Public Safety Building, 702 Stowersville Road.
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On the ground
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Jean Mussen, an Essex County Board of Elections staff member working at the Lake Placid early voting location, said Tuesday she had worked over 30 elections throughout her career and she has never seen such strong early in-person voter turnout. Early voting in New York state began in 2019.
“It’s been a steady stream of people each day here at the beach house,” she said. “We had one couple who made a day out of it. They came from a good distance away within Essex County and said they were going to spend some time enjoying Lake Placid (Saturday) afternoon after voting.”
Mussen added that the beach house provided a bonus for those casting a ballot.
“It’s such a pretty backdrop,” she said. “A lot of people have ventured on to the deck to get a selfie in front of or a picture of Mirror Lake after they vote.”
She said there have been no mechanical or logistical issues that she is aware of with the counting machines accepting ballots.
“So far, so good,” she said. “It’s been very smooth.”
Paula Politi, of Lake Placid, was enjoying helping people sign in to vote on Tuesday.
“It’s great,” she said. “I’ve run into so many people, not just here in Lake Placid, but coming from all over Essex County, who I haven’t seen in quite a while. It’s been fun catching up.”
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In-person voting
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In the town of Jay, in-person voting in election districts 1 and 2 is at the Jay Town Office, 11 School Lane, AuSable Forks.
In the town of Keene, the polling place is the Keene Valley Fire Hall, 15 Market St., for both districts.
In North Elba, voting takes place at the Shipman Youth Center, 61 Cummings Road, Lake Placid, for districts 1, 3, 4, 5 and 6 and the North Elba Town House, 193 River St., Saranac Lake, for district 2.
In Wilmington, voting takes place at the Wilmington Community Center, 7 Community Circle, Wilmington.
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Digging into the data
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The partisan breakdown, or party which the voters are affiliated with, of the 2,232 ballots cast in Essex County, according to Fifield, is listed below. The percentages were rounded to the nearest hundredth of 1%.
– Democrat: 952 (42.65 %)
– Republican: 788 (35.30 %)
– Unaffiliated: 376 (16.85 %)
– Other parties: 116 (5.20 %)
Essex County has 25,817 registered voters, although not everyone who is registered ends up casting a ballot in any given election. The partisan breakdown, according to Fifield, of the county’s registered voters is listed below. The percentages were rounded to the nearest hundredth of 1%.
– Republican: 10,611 (41.10 %)
– Democrat: 7,649 (29.63 %)
– Unaffiliated: 5,734 (22.21 %)
– Other parties: 1,823 (7.06%)
In all, 19,479 ballots were cast in Essex County in the 2020 General Election and 15,788 votes were cast in Essex County in the 2022 General Election.
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Several ways to vote
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Anyone considering voting in New York must already be registered. The state’s voter registration deadline was Saturday, Oct. 26. Early in-person voting is open through Sunday. Early voting is one of several ways people can cast their ballot in New York. People can vote in person on Election Day, which is Tuesday, Nov. 5. Polls are open in New York from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. People can also vote by mail.
The deadline to request a mail-in ballot online was Saturday, Oct. 26, although people can still make a request for a mail-in ballot by submitting their application in-person, or designating someone else to on their behalf, at the Essex County Board of Elections, located at 7551 Court St., Elizabethtown, during regular hours through Monday, Nov. 4.
Mail ballots must be postmarked by Tuesday, Nov. 5 or hand-delivered to the Essex County Board of Elections office by 9 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 5. Mail-in ballots can also be dropped off at any Election Day in-person polling location in Essex County by 9 p.m. Tuesday, or either of the two early voting locations during their polling hours.