Elections Professional and Activist
I last spoke to SU Professor Thomas Keck just after the death of Justice Ginsburgh about a month ago. I felt it fitting to bring him back now that we are on the verge of the Amy Barrett nomination to the Supreme Court and get his perspective on what we know about her as a jurist and what Democrats should consider doing if indeed this nomination succeeds. Enjoy.
https://www.facebook.com/dustinmczarny/videos/2743182422675467
Czarny said today he misspoke. “What I meant was at the end of our enrollment period I believe we will surpass the 2004 record,” he said.
Onondaga County Elections Commissioner Dustin Czarny said nearly 50,000 out of the 120,000 absentee ballots he expects to get in the mail have already come in.
He’s still concerned with the board’s ability to afford all the extra work needed to process those votes, saying they could use more state funding.
“We’re having to basically throw money and bodies at the situation to try to help ourselves,” Czarny said.
Czarny said a last-minute surge is typical, but it is exaggerated this year because of the coronavirus. Places where people normally would have registered, such as the state Department of Motor Vehicles … were closed or canceled over the summer.
Wrapping up my interview series with Democrats on the fall ballot is Assemblyman Bill Magnarelli representing Syracuse, Geddes, & Van Burne. I talk to Bill about the STEAM School, his fight to hold developers accountable for tax breaks they receive, and his work on the Joint School Construction project most notably Fowler Field. Check it out.
https://www.facebook.com/dustinmczarny/videos/1037314783374869
As of 2:30 p.m., about 26,300 ballots had been received at the Board of Elections, according to Elections Commissioner Dustin Czarny….“I’m very happy that people are acting with urgency and acting early in this election,” he said.
“A drowning man looks for any branch he can find,” he said. “That’s pretty much where we’re at, especially with the federal government abdicating their responsibility in providing money to local governments and election security.”
County Democratic Elections Comissioner Dustin Czarny tweeted that means that the county is fewer than 3,000 registrations away from the 2004 record, and only about 7,000 absentees away from breaking the June presidential primary record.
“It is amazing that we are even getting close to that because law changes that were put in place in 2004 dramatically reduced the number of people on the books that we would take off because of the mail checks every year,” said Onondaga County Elections Commissioner Dustin Czarny.
Go to onvote.net to apply for an absentee, track your ballot, find your polling place and sample ballot or find out about Early Voting
https://www.facebook.com/dustinmczarny/videos/1476209869255470
Dustin M. Czarny