SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Less than 1% of Onondaga County residents are registered Democrats or Republicans in early voting for the 2024 New York State presidential primary ahead of Tuesday's election.
The county Board of Elections reported that 1,202 voters participated in the eight days of early voting for the presidential primary that ended Saturday. This total represents only 0.6% of the major parties' 197,700 registered voters.
Election officials expected low early voting turnout as Democratic President Joe Biden and Republican challenger Donald Trump clinched the nominations of both parties during primary voting in other states in early March. Ta. However, New York state law requires counties to continue holding scheduled primaries, at an estimated cost to taxpayers of $250,000 to $350,000.
Early voting for this year's primary election exceeded the number of participants in the 2020 presidential primary by 30 votes, but the overall level of in-person voting that year was affected by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. It was quite low. Early voting has been part of elections in New York state since 2019.
A typical primary election day is Tuesday from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. at 126 polling locations in Onondaga County. For questions regarding voting locations, please call the Board of Elections at (315) 435-8683.
City Reporter Jeremy Boyer can be reached at: jboyer@syracuse.com(315) 657-5673, twitter or Facebook.
