Long lines seen at early voting sites across Erie County

CHEEKTOWAGA, NY (WIVB) — In the first few days of the early voting, the Erie County Board of Elections has seen long lines forming at early voting sites.

“We’ve seen a lot of enthusiasm at the polls, a lot of people are excited to vote,” said Jeremy Zellner, the democratic commissioner of the Erie County Board of Elections. “The first day on Saturday was the largest first day of early voting that we’ve ever had, but it seems to be on track for year ago, turnout wise, although we are seeing a very good crowd.”

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Where to cast early vote in WNY

“It seems to have spurred a lot of interest, not only in the presidential level, but also on the down-ballot, local races as well.” said Ralph Mohr, the republican commissioner of the Erie County Board of Elections. “When it’s all said and done by this weekend, when you’re counting the early mail in ballots, we’ve had almost 10% of the eligible voters in Erie County casting their ballots.”

Election Day is one week away, but voters have the option to vote early or hand in their absentee ballots at the polls or in the mailbox, as long as it’s postmarked by Nov. 5.

Both Zellner and Mohr, are reminding voters who applied for absentee ballots this year, that there’s been recent changes to the New York State Election Law.

“If someone has an absentee, and they try to go vote at the polls, it’s going to say ‘Already Voted Absentee,'” said Zellner.

They say if a voter applied for an absentee ballot, they will not appear in the registered list of voters at the polls. Election Inspectors could offer them an affidavit ballot, which will then be sent to the Board of Elections and investigated, to make sure the individual did not already vote.

“The reason is that the absentee ballots, so we get early results, are counted at various times throughout the course of the election, so it prohibits someone from voting twice,” said Mohr.

Mohr says though it doesn’t happen often, they have had instances where individuals have tried to vote in another county and then also Erie County.

“When that occurs, we do catch that. It might not be right at that moment, but within days and before we count the ballots, we do,” said Mohr. “In some instances if we see it’s a deliberate attempt to try to defraud, we have prosecuted those individuals.”

For those who are interested in early voting, polls will be open during the week 12-9 p.m., and then on Saturday and Sunday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. For early voting, you can stop by any of the 38 voting sites in Erie County to cast your ballot. To see the entire list of early voting sites, click here.

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Hope Winter is a reporter and multimedia journalist who has been part of the News 4 team since 2021. See more of her work here.

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