“Early voting turnout and mail-in ballot requests this year are beyond every measure,” Czarny said. “There is no comparison to past years.”

Facebook founder’s grant helps fund election in Onondaga County

“You can come into our office between now and November 2nd and get an absentee ballot and vote right here in the office. You can have somebody pick up that absentee ballot for you…we just need a note from you saying the reason.” said Czarny.

https://www.waer.org/politics-government/2020-10-30/unusually-high-voter-turnout-continues-in-onondaga-county-after-early-voting-begins

One of Onondaga County’s election commissioners, Dustin Czarny, told us, “Any writing on a ballot would be grounds for it to be thrown out, however, our machine catches that, spits the ballot out and tells the voter to get a new ballot.  Our inspectors NEVER write on the ballot and hand out a pen with the ballot.”

https://www.localsyr.com/news/your-local-election-hq/9-burning-questions-about-voting-and-vote-counting/

Next year, Czarny said, he will push for additional ..sites. “Early voting starts off at a certain pace when it’s introduced in the state, and then continues to grow over time,” Czarny said. “We are definitely going to see increases going forward.”

https://www.syracuse.com/news/2020/10/why-long-lines-to-vote-early-onondaga-county-gop-pushed-for-fewer-sites-to-save-money.html

The place with the shortest lines, so far, is actually the Armond Magnarelli Community Center at McChesney Park,…But, he said, lines are definitely shorter at the two Syracuse locations and at the one in LaFayette.

https://www.syracuse.com/politics/2020/10/where-to-go-to-beat-the-lines-for-early-voting-in-onondaga-county.html

“When we opened our site last weekend, there were people in line for an hour and a half even before we opened, So we felt the best way to deal with crowds coming next weekend is to open up earlier and try to process as many voters as possible”

https://www.wrvo.org/elections/2020-10-28/early-voting-hours-in-onondaga-county-extended-to-meet-demand

Democratic Elections Commissioner Dustin Czarny reports that five of the six locations each had more voters Wednesday than on any of the first four early voting days.

https://www.localsyr.com/news/your-local-election-hq/5th-day-of-early-voting-breaks-turnout-records-again-in-onondaga-oswego-and-tompkins-counties/

“We’ve seen way more registration [this year,] and we are looking at over 130,000 to go to the polls on Election Day,” said Czarny. “All of these factors, I think, are combining for higher turnout than four years ago.”

While Czarny says in-person Election Day voting totals will be down this year, he’s confident the pandemic won’t stop people from having their voices heard.

“People want to participate more this year, and I think it’s because of the nature of the current political climate,” said Czarny. “We’ve adjusted for the virus, and even with it, there’s been such an increase [in participation.]”

Increased Voter Turnout is Expected in Onondaga County