Elections Professional and Activist
March Village elections are coming soon. February 4-11, 2025 is the independent nominating petition period for those villages. This year Fabius and Jordan are having elections run by their clerk and Skaneateles & Manlius run by the Onondaga County Board of Elections. Check it out.
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“Every election has a six to eight-month lead up period of activity that you have to do to get to that election and we have 4 or 5 elections a year,” Czarny said. “So, we’re always planning for one as we’re setting up another.”
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The #weeklywonk is back! About once a week I will write an article looking into the registration and electoral data in Onondaga County. In 2025 This will be a semi-weekly article and switch between electoral results data and registration data on races having elections this year. This week we will start to look back at the 2024 General Election and review the different data pieces from this pivotal event for our county. This week we start off by looking at Alternative voting in the 2024 General Election.
When I talk about alternative voting, I am referring to ways to cast a vote other than showing up and voting on Election Day in the normal matter. Alternative Voting generally comes in 4 main categories: Early in Person Voting, Vote by Mail, Affidavit Voting, and Court Orders. In 2024 we had 231,617 voters of which 51% (119323) voted on election Day. The remaining 49% voted in alternative methods. Early Voting (77,935 34%) led the way, with Vote by Mail (29,026 13%), Affidavit voting (5,128 2%), and finally court orders (205 <1%). Democrats tend to dominate alternative voting, and it was no different in 2024. Democrats made up 39% of Early Voters and 50% of Vote by Mail Voters. Republicans did a little better in Early Voting climbing to 31% but only 21% of Vote by Mail voters. Non enrolled made up 24% of both Early and Vote by Mail voters. 3rd Party voters were 6% of Early Voters and 5% of Vote by Mail.
Early Voting has only been in place since the general election of 2019. Looking at the raw total of Early Voting, the 77,935 Early Voters in the 2024 General Election easily broke the record of both raw vote (59,284) and percentage of the over vote (24.96%) set in the last Presidential election. When making comparisons we should look at similar years in the four-year cycle. We have now had only two repeat years of similar years, 2019 & 2023 as well as 2020 & 2024. In both cases we saw significant increases from the past cycle in terms of raw vote totals. The 2020 to 2024 increases saw a 31.46% increase in raw totals and a 34.94% increase in percentage of overall vote.
We have 10 Early Voting Sites for a general election. Onondaga County started with 6 Early Voting sites from 2019 to 2021 and increased to ten in 2022 and remains to this day. These site numbers represent the minimum Early Voting sites required by NYS law. Over the course of the last few cycles our Early Voting sites have grouped themselves into large, medium, and small volumes which held the same in 2024. The 3 large sites are Dewitt town Hall (13,615 17%), Camillus Fire Station #1 12,348 16%), and Clay town Hall (12,079 16%). The 4 medium sites are North Syracuse Community Connections (10,377 13%), Lysander Municipal Building (8,422 11%), OCC Mulroy Hall (6,194 8%), and Armond Magnarelli (5,261 7%). Finally, there are three small sites Lafayette Fire Station #1 (5,026 6%), Beauchamp Library (2,772 4%), and Syracuse Community Connections (1,841 2%). One of the innovations we used this year was a wait time display on our website which helped spread out the totals and kept our large sites from being overwhelmed as in previous years.
Vote by Mail experienced large volumes in 2024 with the addition of the Early Vote by Mail option which allowed a non-excuse-based ability to vote by mail. This saw a large increase in terms of requests (33.908) and returns (29. 361). This was down from the records in 2020 (68,468 & 57,203) which was skewed due to the COVID pandemic. In addition, the return rate, the number of ballots returned versus request, was 86.59%. This represents one of the largest return rates since tracking started in 2009 indicating an enthusiasm, at least among vote by mail voters, to participate in the 2024 election. The percentage of the over all vote though is hard to compare. Since the pandemic we have had a variety of circumstances and access laws different just about every year. The 12.53% certainly shows a jump from the last few years but a decrease from 2020. We also can see that overall, more voters are using vote by mail in comparing previous cycles. We will have to see how the next four-year cycle goes to truly judge.
2024 was also a record year for affidavit voting in Onondaga County, Affidavit ballots are mainly for voters who are properly registered at one point but have moved or need to correct other information. These ballots are counted after Election Day as they need proper research by the staff of the Board of Elections. This was the highest number of voters (5,403) since we started tracking the data in 2009 eclipsing 2012’s record (5112). It was also the highest number of valid affidavits (5,128) by far also eclipsing the record in 2012 (3602). Finally, it also holds the record of percentage of affidavits that were ruled valid (94.91%) eclipsing 2021’s record (91.96%). The new vote by mail canvassing procedures as well as the increased intensity of a Presidential election is the reason we saw a large increase in volume. New rules and hard work of the Onondaga County Board of Elections is responsible for the high percentage of valid votes.
We track the Vote by Mail ballots and Affidavit ballots that are ultimately rejected by the Onondaga County Board of Elections. For both Vote by mail and Affidavits, when we are able, cures are sent to voters when a ballot is ruled invalid seeking to correct any deficiencies to count the ballot. This data represents the ballots that were not cured and had to be rejected. For Vote by Mail 533 ballots that were mailed were rejected for just a 1.84% rejection rate. The largest set of rejected ballots was 285 ballots that we mailed that had an undeliverable address. This is usually due to Permanent Absentee voters moving and not updating their address. Following that 153 (29%) did not have a matching signature, 53 (10%) were postmarked after Election Day, and the remaining 7% are spread over a variety of small reasons. 27th affidavits were rejected with a rejection rate of 5.09%. 170 (62%) voters were not registered to vote at all, 50 (18%) voted either in person or by mail and the affidavit was rejected, 41 (15%) of the affidavits the voter failed to sign the envelope, 12 (4%) were voters who resided in other counties, and 2 (1%) the voters failed to enclose the ballots.
Looking at voting methods by year we get a great sense at how voters are gravitating towards these new options. Before 2019 New York and Onondaga County were primarily in person on election Day voting states averaging just 4-7% of voters voting by mail or affidavit. In 2019 this immediately jumped to 11.92%. During the pandemic in 2020 still holds the record with 49.93% choosing alternative methods. However, we saw growths in 2021 with 16.23%, 2022 with 26.42%, a slight decrease in 2023 to 20.03%, and grew a great deal in 2024 to 48.42%. It is likely that we will continue to see an increased usage rate for alternative voting. Though there was a slight decrease from the similar years of 2020 to 2024, that could be summed up to the anomaly that was the COVID pandemic. We did see a decent increase from 2019 to 2023 (68.04%).
Unfortunately, alternative voting has been a polarizing subject since its introduction in 2019. Democrats outnumber Republicans statistically in Onondaga County. Thuse it is expected for Democrats to dominate the raw numbers of any voting method. However, with Alternative voting we see consistently that a larger percentage of the overall vote chooses the two big alternative voting methods of Early Voting and vote by Mail. In 2024 we saw a dramatic increase in usage of Early Voting by republican voters (3550%). So much so they eclipsed the rate of Democratic voters (33.94%) when comparing the overall turnout. We saw the opposite in vote by Mail. Democrats took better advantage (16.44%) of the new Early Vote by Mail option than the GOP (6.90%) which grew only slightly.
That is, it for this week’s edition of the Weekly Wonk. Next week I continue my look back at the 2024 as we check in on election Day voting and overall turnout. Check back each week at dustinczarny.com as I examine more aspects of our community.
This week I recap the NYSECA winter convention that was held last week in Albany. I talk about why elections officials from all over NY go convene twice a year to train and learn from our fellow colleagues. I also talk about the first few days of the Trump administration and the effect of some of his executive orders, and pardons, has on voting. Enjoy.
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In this weeks episode I preview the races expected to be on the ballot in 2025. County Legislature, Town races, and the big primaries in the City of Syracuse. I also touch on how the even year legislation is going to effect it if it survives a lawsuit, Enjoy.
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I am back! In this week’s edition I talk about the decisions I have made on when to expect content in 2025 at dustinczarny.com. I also talk about the change in the National and State political landscape. And finally I talk about changes happening at the Onondaga County Board of Elections.
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Every year the Democratic Caucus of the NYS Elections Commissioner Association identify a list of legislative and budget priorities to present to our legislative and executive leaders in New York to make better voter experience and make election administration better. We denote the current bill numbers, legislative status, and whether this is a shared goal of the GOP caucus of NYSECA or the NYS Board of Elections.
Give Boards of Elections the ability to properly serve the voters of New York.
Since 2019, long awaited election reform has changed local Boards of Elections responsibilities without making the structural changes necessary for each county board to meet the needs of their voters. Making these changes will allow County Commissioners the ability to strategically plan and bring year-round full-time management to the Board of Elections in every county. We also support making training and certification for all Elections Commissioners and deputies to ensure professional operations of each Board of Elections. We also must ensure proper transitions when new Elections Commissioners are elected, so we should limit late calendar nominations that can cause chaos on the political calendar.
Invest in our election system by providing the following funding streams in the New York State Budget.
The cost of running elections is mainly the responsibility of county governments. With the added responsibilities that the NYS Legislature has required of Board of Elections we have rising costs due to increase staffing and equipment purchases. Each county has different needs. We believe a single annual Aid to locality grant replacing the various postage, equipment, and staffing grants is the best way for New York to meet is obligation to help county boards properly operate. We also support the NYS Board of Elections in their budget request to meet the increased regulatory and functionality they are required to provide.
Provide flexibility for County Board of Election operations.
County Board of Elections need flexibility to meet the modern needs of the electorate. Each individual county has different needs. Allowing the county boards flexibility in designating election inspectors can help in rural and urban communities. Boards of Elections often need to operate at different hours than their county hosts. They also need flexibility in selecting Early Voting sites that are more suitable for their counties. Finally joining ERIC will give Boards of Elections the tools we need to maintain our voter registration lists and provide accurate data.
Reform the Automatic Hand Count to work more efficiently.
The automatic hand-count has been in place for several election cycles. We have learned that the precinct scanners are accurate. Lowering the threshold for the hand-count will allow the Board of Elections to only focus on the truly close races that have a chance of changing hands. We must also stipulate that the hand-count should only start after initial certification allowing boards to properly prepare and sort ballots for counting. Finally, we should exempt party positions from the hand count rule as these elections are routinely close but not close enough to switch winners and draw resources away from publicly held offices. We can also give candidates with lesser votes the options to bypass the hand count if they don’t wish to participate.
Enhance our Ballot Access laws to provide protections for parties and to give access to candidates.
Our ballot access laws need modern protections and adjustments to ensure competitive and free elections. Over the last few cycles, we have seen an increase in those wanting to exploit some weaknesses in some ballot access functions to steal party lines. We urge the legislature to close these loopholes by extending the party change deadline until after the last day of caucus and to protect caucus from party raiding in the same way we do other ballot access methods. With the new calendar that pushes petitioning earlier we urge the legislature to give county parties the ability to have direct ballot access in the same way state parties have. Lastly, we encourage the legislature to pass legislation to refer to all elected offices in New York gender neutral terms.
Enhance and invest in our Vote by Mail options
One of the fastest growing methods of voting in New York is vote by mail. We should build upon this success. Voters should be presented with a uniform application for both Absentee and Vote by Mail so voters can [properly choose the method right for them. We also want county Board of Elections to have an option to scan vote by mail ballots during the Early Voting period if the Board of elections has the resources to do so. Finally, we would like the ability for Elections Commissioners to issue emergency same-day absentee ballots for health-related emergencies on election Day.
Emphasize the importance of Election Day, paper Ballots, and convenience of voters.
We also support steps to emphasize the importance of election Day. We believe that Election Day should be designated a non-attendance day for schools which will free up HAVA compliant polling places. We also support a Federal Holiday for Election Day to give voters the flexibility to not only vote but serve as election inspectors. We also want to allow, on a permissive basis, county Board of Elections to implement vote centers on Election Day as we do for Early Voting. Finally, we urge the NYS legislature to enact a constitutional amendment requiring the use of paper ballots in New York, which protects against fraud and allows for hand counts of close contests.
The Democratic caucus of NYS Elections Commissioners stand ready to assist any legislator willing to take up one of our priorities that does not yet have a bill number. We also encourage legislators to co-sponsor the bills we have included in our priorities as well. If you have any questions or wish to meet on any of these proposals, please reach out to our Caucus Chair, Dustin Czarny, at dustinczarny@gmail.com or 315-383-4318.
(Bi-partisan support) Indicates a common goal with the NYS Elections Commissioner Association Overall Legislative Agenda as Approved by bi-partisan Elections Commissioners in January 2025.
(NYSBOE support) Indicates a common goal with the NYS Board of Elections as part of their Election law proposals.
The two elections were “very unusual,” Dustin Czarny, an Onondaga County elections commissioner.
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“Usually someone wages a write-in campaign and then they become the overwhelming winner,” Czarny said.
That didn’t happen in this case, though a few people did write in a handful of names.
Czarny described the Onondaga County elections budget this year as “artificially low” because it did not include funding to operate a second primary. “This year’s budget is going to be blown way out of the water,” he said.
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Dustin M. Czarny