NewsChannel 9 spoke with Onondaga County Elections Commissioner Dustin Czarny on Thursday about the voter registration deadline.

https://www.localsyr.com/news/your-local-election-hq/oct-9-marks-voter-registration-deadline/

Much of the uptick according to Onondaga County Democratic Elections Commissioner Dustin Czarny, is a direct result of the coronavirus pandemic.

“Voter registration during the summer and spring was almost non-existent because of the coronavirus,” Czarny said. “The DMV’s were closed. They usually generate new voter registration changes, address changes, and they got pushed until after Labor Day when we starting seeing a tick up.”

Czarny said that voter registration also tends to go up during presidential election years. 

https://www.wrvo.org/elections/2020-10-07/voter-registrations-surge-ahead-of-october-9-deadline

Any race where the candidates are within 10 percentage points or fewer will be too close to call on election night, Elections Commissioner Dustin Czarny said.

https://www.syracuse.com/politics/cny/2020/10/nys-2020-election-results-could-come-closer-to-thanksgiving-than-election-day-heres-why.html

“We are getting about a thousand forms a day over the last month and it is ramping up toward the end of the deadline. With DMVs and voter registration events closed all summer a lot of the registration that would have happened last year is happening now.”

https://cnycentral.com/news/local/deadline-to-register-to-vote-in-ny-is-friday-heres-how-to-register

Czarny says the biggest mistakes you should avoid when sending your absentee ballot is either sending it in late or not signing the back of the ballot.“The biggest thing is coming in late, not being postmarked by November 3rd. The second biggest reason is not signing the back of the ballot (envelope) and not sealing the envelope,” he says.

https://cnycentral.com/news/local/100k-expected-absentee-ballots-in-onondaga-co-wont-be-fully-counted-until-after-election

Late last month, there was good news for Onondaga: It won $280,000 from the Zuckerberg-funded initiative, something county officials said would allow the temporary hiring of four additional employees, on top of the six the county had already hired for the sprint to November.“ It’s 12-hour days, 7 to 7, and we’ve pretty much told everyone they are working every Saturday until the election,” Mr. Czarny said. “And some Sundays, too.”