Dustin Czarny, an elections commissioner in Onondaga County, New York, submitted written testimony in advance of the hearing underscoring the “sophisticated and continuously validated processes” that help keep our elections safe and secure, while calling on congressional leaders to invest in the country’s critical election infrastructure now and over the long-term in order to meet evolving needs and combat election disinformation. “Providing substantial and consistent funding from the federal government is the best way to ensure equal opportunity to the ballot box for all citizens,” Czarny wrote.
New Content Schedule for 2024
Hello everyone, I just wanted to drop you a note that I am slightly altering my content schedule for 2024. I am still going to try and bring you my weekly contributions for Commissioner in a Car and Zoom with Czarny podcasts along with my weekly article The Weekly Wonk. But they are coming out on different days now to better keep up with the crazy presidential year.
(Edited from a previous post, I am back to my schedule that I basically kept up with in 2023)
My weekly show about election news in Onondaga County and New York will now come out on Tuesdays. It will start with a FB live debut at 5pm and then drop on my Youtube, Spotify, and other media channels. This will also serve as a look at the week ahead along with all the news happening in and around elections.
My weekly article featuring electoral and other data will drop over the weekend right here on dustinczarny.com. This will focus on registration data for upcoming elections as well as analytics for Onondaga County Board of Elections
My weekly interview show will now drop on Friday morning here and on all my social media. This will feature interviews with Democratic candidates and Democracy advocates throughout New York.
I still plan on doing Czarny Seminars once a month starting in April dealing with how you the voter can interact with our Electoral process throughout the year. Stay tuned on how to vote by absentee, early vote, and vote in person as we get ready for the 2024 Presidential Election.
As always subscribe to dustinczarny.com for all content and election news
Commissioner in a Car: One house budgets, Senate Elections Committee, and Village Elections oh my.
This week I talk about the budget process in New York as we await one house budgets from the Assembly and NY Senate, and what might await local boards of elections in those bills. I also talk about the upcoming village elections on March 19th in Fayetteville, Minoa, Marcellus, Baldwinsville, and Fabius. Enjoy.
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The Weekly Wonk: Dustinczarny.com year two
Welcome back to #WeeklyWonk. Each weekend I publish an article on a subject relating to elections in Onondaga County and New York State. Often these articles will have detailed stats to consume but sometimes they will be a recap of a prominent issue or on relevant election law. I have had sporadic offerings since the November general election but now am committed to weekly offerings to be published at dustinczarny.com so we can understand the political landscape and work of the Onondaga County Board of Elections. This week I take a brief look back at my informational website, dustinczarny.com.
I started dustinczarny.com in January of 2022. I wanted a place to host not only the content I have been creating since 2020, but the media appearances in my work at the Board of Elections. In 2020 I expanded my seldom used platform, Commissioner in a Car, to a weekly podcast on election news. I also added a weekly interview show, Zoom with Czarny to talk to Democracy advocates and Democratic candidates in Onondaga County to make up for the lost community forums during the pandemic. Also, in 2020 I added this weekly column, now known as the #weeklywonk. These endeavors continued beyond the pandemic on various platforms, and I wanted a single space to collect them and document my other media appearances and serve as a central informational hub. Thus, on January 1, 2022, using my own money and resources I designed and launched dustinczarny.com. Data in this article will examine dustinczarny.com on its 2nd anniversary January 1, 2024.
I have three main categories that my website posts break into, Media, Podcasts, and Writings. The media is a collection of all my appearances in the fourth estate, including features and individual articles. In 2023 I collected 67 media appearances and have collected 689 appearances catalogued on dustinczarny.com dating back to 2013 when I was first appointed Elections Commissioner of Onondaga County. This is my 2nd most catalogued event in 2023 as and first all time. My most frequent contribution to dustinczarny.com in 2023 was my series of podcasts. I had 90 installments in 2023 and 409 installments going back to 2016, but mostly since 2020. Finally, I contributed 51 writing contributions in 2023 and 190 contributions going back to 2013, but mostly again since 2020.
Inside the three main categories I have different subcategories of content. In Media there are interviews, normal media appearances in print or on tv, and features, which are longer appearances on news programs. I did 53 interviews and 14 different features in 2023. The Podcasts are broken into my weekly 48 Commissioner in a Car episodes (48), 38 Zoom with Czarny Interviews (38) and 4 Czarny Seminars (4). Finally, the writings are in 4 different subcategories. I produced 36 #weeklywonk episodes, 9 general blog posts, 4 pieces of testimony to government bodies, and 2 editorials to major publications.
When I look back at the monthly activity The largest amount of activity was in the month of August, with 25 posts. It is also the most balanced month, since it was not the biggest month for any category. The largest month for writing was January with 8 offerings as I wrapped up the 2022 election year and had a few pieces of testimony. The largest month for podcasts was October with 10, as I tried to get as much information out about the general election as possible. The largest month for media was November with 17, as might be expected. As election results are released over the month of November, I tend to be asked to be part of interviews during the post-election period.
The last piece of data I am going to analyze is web traffic at dustinczarny.com. My goal in creating the website was simple, continue to provide content and hope it grows a little each year. In relative terms the reach of dustinczarny.com is small, but it did experience growth in it’s first year. In 2022 dustinczarny.com saw 7,272 views, and in 2023 it grew to 10,506 views. In terms of unique visitors there was growth as well, rising from 4,548 in 2022 to 6,190 in 2023. That is a rise of 44.47% in views and 36.10% in visitors. I am happy with this rise as 2023 was in general a less active political year and I look forward to what dustinczarny.com can do in a Presidential year.
That is, it for the #weeklywonk this weekend. Starting next week, I am going to be changing up when I release the #weeklywonk and my other weekly content, Commissioner in a Car and Zoom with Czarny podcasts. I will be releasing my Commissioner in a Car on Monday evenings starting on FB live and moving onto my other platforms. #WeeklyWonks will be released on Wednesdays with next week’s look at the Fayetteville and Baldwinsville village elections. Finally Zoom with Czarny interviews will be released on Friday mornings. Meanwhile you can subscribe to dustinczarny.com to get all content and election news updates.
Local politics sees a surge in interest amid national tensions – CNY Central
Onondaga County Elections Commissioner Dustin Czarny said this divide in politics nationally has driven people to local politics instead. “I think the underreported story over the last four to eight years is while national politics has gotten bad, that has driven interest in local politics as well.”
https://cnycentral.com/news/local/local-politics-sees-a-surge-in-interest-amid-national-tensions#
Zoom with Czarny: The Fayetteville Democratic Candidates
On this week’s episode I talk to Sara Bollinger running for Mayor of the Village of Fayetteville and Casey Cleary-Hammerstadt running for village board. We talk about the fact this is the first opening for Mayor in over 20 years and the proposition on the ballot for moving village elections to November. Enjoy. Vote March 19, 2024 6am to 9pm at Fayetteville Village Hall. Go to onvote.net under village elections to get more information on voting.
Find Casey and Sara here:
https://www.facebook.com/bollingerformayor/ https://www.facebook.com/CaseyClearyforFayetteville
Subscribe to dustinczarny.com for all content and election news updates
Commissioner in a Car: All you need to know about Village Elections
On this week’s Commissioner in a Car I talk about the village elections happening on march 19th. Onondaga County will see 5 villages run elections this March, 3 run by the OCBOE and 2 run by village clerks. Go to the village election page at onvote.net for more information.
Subscribe to dustinczarny.com for all content and election news updates
Fayetteville to feature election move ballot proposition – Eagle Bulletin
“A village resident belonging to that group said that judging by data collected of other local villages that was shared this month by Onondaga County Democratic Elections Commissioner Dustin Czarny, a November election is likely to increase turnout in village elections compared to the number of people that vote in March.”
Zoom with Czarny: Jeff Wice on NY Redistricting
This week I sit down with the Grandfather of NY Redistricting, Jeff Wice of the New York Law School. We go over the bipartisan maps passed by the NY legislature, why they rejected and slightly altered the New York State Independent Redistricting Commission maps. We also look at what went wrong and how it can be altered. Enjoy.
Subscribe to dustinczarny.com for all content and election news updates
Democratic state lawmakers could implement new congressional district map as early as Wednesday – WAER
“There’s a few winners, there’s a few losers,” Czarny said. “New York 1 is a Republican district that got more Republican and then you’ve got our district–New York 22–that actually didn’t change at all.”
Dustin M. Czarny 