Are You Early Voting this Year?

Election day is next Tuesday and early voting is now taking place in New York. If you have watched any of the news lately, you’ve undoubtedly seen that long lines are being shown at polling locations all over the country.

Early voting began over the weekend and as of yesterday, and according to the Daily Gazette more than 420,000 people had already cast their ballots. Voter enthusiasm is evident as we see the long lines at polling places.

Mr. John Conklin is the Director of Public Information with the New York Board of Elections. Mr. Conklin encourages voters to have a plan for where, when, and how they will vote. He said, “There’s not a lot we can do to change the capacity for early voting. Early voting is never intended to be a substitute for Election Day. It’s always basically a smaller version of Election Day. So we have fewer hours, fewer staff, and fewer staff locations, but that’s always been by design.“

Mr. Conklin went on to say that on Election Day, there will be more voting locations that will be fully staffed. The polls will be open on Election Day from 6 a.m. until 9 p.m. at more than 5,000 polling sites.

There are some conspiracy theories out there that say that the design is there to discourage voters from casting their ballots. This doesn’t seem very far fetched to me, but this time it doesn’t seem like it’s working.

Voters appear to be determined to have their votes count. Whether you vote on Election Day, or take advantage of early voting, make sure that you get out and cast your vote.