Welcome back to #WeeklyWonk. Each weekend I publish an article on a subject relating to elections in Onondaga County and New York State. Often these articles will have detailed stats to consume but sometimes they will be a recap of a prominent issue or on relevant election law. I am turning my eye to the 2023 elections. This week I take a break from looking at the political subdivisions and focus on breaking down the 2023 Primary Election. This is the second in a two-part series focusing on all aspects of the 2023 primary. This week we finish with Election Day & Affidavit voting as well as Overall Turnout.
In Person Election Day voting remains the most popular form of voting. 5,376 voters (74%) voters chose to vote In-person on Election Day. 1,113 (15%) Early Voters followed this, 724 (10&) Absentee voters, 69 Affidavit voters (1%), and a single court order voter. Of the voters who voted on Election Day 3,977 (74%) were Democrat. 932 Republican (17%), and 467 (9%) Conservative. The seeming domination of Democrats on Election Day is a bit of a mirage. Because we are analyzing a primary, we must recognize the fact that Democrats had far more voters eligible for this primary than the GOP. Thus, the raw total was always going to be skewed to the Democrats.
As noted, the 2023 June Primary had a limited scope with only Democrat. n Syracuse, Republicans in Pompey and Salina, and Conservatives county wide. This results in a small number of voters (5376) showing up on Election Day when compared to the County Wide primaries of 2020 and two primaries in 2022. However, it is similar to the 2021 June Primary which had a similar number of eligible voters. We are seeing though an interesting pattern in Election. voting as a percentage of the overall primary vote. The 2020 Pandemic primary forced many voters to Absentee. Early Voting showing the smallest amount of Election Day votes. It seemed as if Election Day was going to make a major com. ck with 2021 and 2022 June primaries. However, with the August 2022 primary and 2023 primary we have seen a steady decline in percentage of voters waiting for Election Day and we could see this being a slow steady pattern over time.
When we look at the ten top polling places for Election Day an interesting pattern emerges. We actually have eleven polling places here as there is a tie for tenth place. Of the eleven top polling places seven of them (Nottingham, Erwin, Spiritual, Bellevue, Valley Vista, Corcoran, & American Legion) were located in the OCL 15th district lines. This primary showed a larger than average turnout. Salem Hyde and Blessed Sacrament are larger polling sites and Pompey Town Hall was part of the Pompey GOP primary. It is also noted the top three polling places (Nottingham, Erwin, Spiritual) are part of the east side 17th Ward/University area where a large number of Democrats live and are activated by the Democratic Primary there.
This graph shows the voter check-ins by hour. Before 2020 we could not capture this data as the image cast voting machines only tracked totals by day, not hour. Our Knowink Poll Pads tracks the times of voter check-ins, so we get a decent feel for how voters ebb and flow throughout the day. All five primaries we have been able to track show a similar pattern regardless of turnout. Voters tend to increase in rate per hour until 10am. Then turnout tends to level off until 4pm. We see the biggest hours in 4-6pm as voters get out of work and vote on their way home. We then see a steep decline in the last few hours of voting until the close of polls.
Another form of voting is Affidavit voting. This is when voters show up at the polls and either do not show up in the poll book or have incorrect information such as an address that is not updated. One of the major election myths out there is that affidavit ballots are routinely thrown out. New York has done an excellent job of loosening technical violations that threw out previous ballots. In fact, 78.4% of all absentee ballots in 2023 Primary were valid and counted. Democrats took the most advantage of this with sixty-seven using this method, 5 GOP, three conservatives, eleven non-enrolled voters, and two voters enrolled in the other category. You may ask how voters not enrolled or in other parties participated in the primary, and the short answer is, they did not. The overwhelming reason for an affidavit ballot to be denied is that they were not enrolled in a party or enrolled in the wrong party for the ballot they requested with fourteen voters being disqualified because of that. Another three voters were not registered at all. And two voters returned an absentee ballot to the Board of Elections and thus we counted the absentee and not the affidavit.
As we start to look at the overall turnout, we really see just how small in scope this primary was. Onondaga County had 305,357 registered voters going into the June 2023 primary. 249,888 (82%) voters were not eligible by geography or party to vote in the primary. Another 48,189 (16%) voters were eligible but did not come out to vote. Just 7,280 (2%) of voters in Onondaga County participated in the June primary. Of those who participated Democrats had 555f (73%) voters made up the voter population. 558 (20%) were from the GOP. 559 (7%) were Conservative. When we look at turnout as a percentage of eligible voters, we saw a final turnout % of 13.12%. Democrats had 14.09% turnout, Republicans 19.48%, and Conservatives were the drag of the election with just 10.95% turnout.
When we look at primary elections going back to 2009, we see that Democrats not only have more primaries, but they are usually larger than the GOP in raw turnout. We have had nineteen primaries since 2009 with only one year, 2011, with no primary from a major party. 2 years there was only a GOP primary, 8 years there was a GOP and Dem Primary, and eight had just a Democratic primary. However, the last five primaries we have seen that there Are Democratic and GOP contests indicating more of a willingness of GOP candidates to challenge their party nominees. When it comes to turnout in a primary another pattern seems to be emerging. Early on the normal GOP advantage in turnout percentage was also represented in primaries. From 2013 2021 it was rare that the GOP had a primary and their turnout was usually lower than Democrats. However, in the last three primaries GOP turnout in primaries has tied or surpassed Democratic turnout in primaries.
Finally, we also can look at turnout in terms of regions. The normal thought on turnout in regions is that the City of Syracuse lags behind the suburbs. However, in primaries, when the primary may be the only election that matters, the City of Syracuse has often surpassed the suburbs ibn turnout, until recently. Of the nineteen primaries since 2009, 5 primaries were solely inside the City of Syracuse. Of the remaining fourteen the City of Syracuse beat the suburbs in eight of these elections. However, the last three primaries saw a correlation with the declining Democratic turnout in primaries with the decline in City turnout in primaries as Syracuse has trailed the suburbs in turnout.
That is, it the last part of my look back at the 2023 June Primary. Next week we will look at the Party Changes and New Voter Registration happening in Onondaga County. In the coming weeks, I will return to the analysis of political subdivisions having elections in 2023. Remember to subscribe to dustinczarny.com for all election news and content updates.
Dustin M. Czarny 