What village officials can control though is when the election is held. Onondaga County elections commissioner Dustin Czarny says only about about 10 to 15 percent of the population votes in village elections. He believes that number would increase with a fall election.

“The villages would have zero costs to run their election, whereas they pay for all their election costs now, and the other big advantage is moving it to November will align it where when people are focused on the elections so better turnout as well,” said Czarny.

https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/central-ny/news/2016/03/15/potential-time-changes-to-village-elections-

In contrast, throughout the entirety of 2015 — a non-presidential election year — there were about 10,500 new registered voters in Onondaga county, Czarny said.

Czarny said that because of excitement that circulates during the presidential election year, people are driven to vote. The numbers of those arriving on Election Day in Onondaga County may more than triple this year compared to a non-presidential election year, according to CNY Central.

Voter registration in Onondaga County increases – The Daily Orange

Onondaga County Elections Commissioner Dustin Czarny says it’s a good idea to improve the turn out. He says it will allow people who have trouble voting on Election Day to have more flexibility.

https://www.localsyr.com/news/governor-cuomo-proposes-12-days-of-voting-before-election-day/

But who cares? Apparently not most of Syracuse. Onondaga County Elections Commissioner Dustin Czarny estimates that a little more than 25 percent of registered voters in Onondaga County turned out to the polls yesterday, according to Syracuse.com. This statistic sticks to a recent trend that voter turnout remains dismally low in off-year elections, considering voter turnout was 27 percent in 2013 and 26 percent in 2011.

Sullivan: Low voter turnout favorable for incumbents – The Daily Orange

While many residents will beat the deadline by registering through a board of elections office or website they can also do it through the New York Department of Motor Vehicles.  Voters have been able to register on their My DMV site for a couple of years now.  But this is the first year they can wait till the last minute, according to Onondaga County Democratic Elections Commissioner Dustin Czarny.

“That’s kind of new this year,” said Czarny. “In previous years, you had to do it well ahead of time, to make sure it got to us.  But they have an electronic time stamp now, so it’s a true electronic voter registration with the DMV.”

https://www.wrvo.org/politics-and-government/2015-10-09/deadline-to-vote-in-this-years-election-and-next-years-presidential-primary-is-today

An off-year election usually means even lower voter turnout on Primary Day. There’s only one way one of the Board of Elections Commissioners, Dustin Czarny, could describe it.

“It’s, well, it’s horrible,” said said Czarny, Onondaga County Democratic Elections Commissioner. “It’s 10 to 20 percent. Sometimes in a mayoral primary you’ll see it up around 30 to 40 percent. But it rarely gets above that.”

https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/central-ny/news/2015/08/13/primary-day-onondaga-county-preview

This is the week that that signature collection effort gets underway as local candidates seeking anything from a handful to a thousand names.

“Depending on what party you’re running for and what position you’re running for depends on how many signatures. That petition process. We have several petition processes, but the main one started this Tuesday and it will run until July 9,” said county Elections Commissioner Dustin Czarny.

https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/central-ny/politics/2015/06/4/candidates-start-push-for-signatures

Onondaga County Democratic Elections Commissioner Dustin Czarny says this change in technology has several advantages.

“We hope that it’ll be more efficient, both on the voter end, and our data collection end at the end of the election,” Czarny said. “Greener of course, because we won’t be printing poll books three or four times a year, and also it’s going to be better access for the voters.”

Czarny says something like this, ultimately, will be cheaper, too.

“If we ever go to a county-wide electronic poll book, you would see an initial cost investment for any individual county doing this, but long-term savings,” Czarny said.

https://www.wrvo.org/elections/2014-11-04/onondaga-county-introducing-electronic-polling-books-in-three-locations

Democratic Elections Commissioner Dustin Czarny agrees. He says these local elections tend to only bring out a little more than one in five registered voters, compared to national races.

“National Elections will have 50, 70 or 80 percent turnout,” Czarny said. “So if people realize that the elections could really make a difference and could really effect their local lives are these local years, these odd number years. That would hopefully generate a little more turnout.”

https://www.wrvo.org/politics-and-government/2013-11-04/onondaga-county-elections-commissioners-struggle-to-get-people-to-polls