Onondaga County Democratic Elections Commissioner Dustin Czarny says voters registered in political parties will choose a number of candidates for the general election during this primary season.

“We have Democrats inside the city of Syracuse as well as County Legislature 8, Republicans in Elbridge, Cicero, and Pompeii, and Conservatives in Elbridge that have primaries this year,” said Czarny.

The most high profile race is in the city of Syracuse, where three candidates are hoping to win the Democratic line for mayor on the November ballot. It’s an open seat this year, because of term limits for current Mayor Ben Walsh. Still, Czarny expects only about 8,000 voters out of the city’s 40,000 registered Democrats will come out and vote.

“Primaries are one of the lowest voter turnouts of any of our election cycles,” Czarny said. “And since only the Democrats are eligible to vote in the primary, that shuts down the number quite a bit.”

https://www.wrvo.org/elections/2025-06-13/early-voting-begins-saturday-ahead-of-june-24-primary-in-new-york

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“I feel bad that they feel that more people participating in government will mean that they will vote against them.
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“The facts are more people will be voting on these elections, and more citizens will have a say..That’s a good thing,” Czarny said.

https://www.waer.org/news/2025-06-09/upcoming-primary-could-spell-beginning-of-end-of-most-odd-year-local-elections

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County Elections Commissioner Dustin Czarny said the board’s goal is to go through independent petition challenges so that they can issue preliminary determinations on Monday and then hold hearings on Friday, June 13.

https://www.syracuse.com/politics/cny/2025/06/syracuse-mayoral-candidate-booted-off-dem-ballot-faces-challenge-to-independent-bid.html

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“You have a Republican candidate with a Conservative line trying to win a Democratic district against a Working Families candidate with an independent line and another Democrat who is running on an independent line because of this court case that came about,” Czarny said.

https://www.waer.org/news/2025-05-30/onondaga-county-legislature-district-faces-unusual-three-way-race

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“A gubernatorial election will have anywhere from 55-60% turnout in Onondaga County,” Czarny said. “A presidential election will have anywhere from 72-77% turnout. An odd-year election will only have around 33% turnout, and that’s a good turnout year. It can be as low as 30%, 28%.”

https://www.wrvo.org/2025-05-15/appellate-court-overrules-onondaga-county-judge-says-nys-even-year-election-law-is-constitutional

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