Category Archives: Interviews

“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.” https://www.waer.org/news/2025-01-29/no-time-to-relax-as-county-board-of-elections-prepares-for-next-slate-of-races Subscribe to dustinczarny.com for all content and election news updates

The two elections were “very unusual,” Dustin Czarny, an Onondaga County elections commissioner. https://www.syracuse.com/news/2024/12/with-thousands-of-blank-ballots-2-central-ny-justice-races-decided-by-fewer-than-20-write-in-votes.html?gift=0985174c-43bb-447c-94a1-bcbaf35d2c37 Subscribe to dustinczarny.com for all content and election news updates

“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. https://www.syracuse.com/politics/cny/2024/12/election-dilemma-2-onondaga-county-races-need-hand-counts-but-most-are-blank-ballots.html?gift=d3817e66-cb68-4bee-b8ca-604aa597d3a6

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. Subscribe to dustinczarny.com for all election news and content updates

“There’s probably 10,000 to 15,000 ballots between the two counties to actually count after the election: the late arriving absentees and the affidavits,” Onondaga County Board of Elections Democratic Commissioner Dustin Czarny said. https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/central-ny/politics/2024/11/06/nick-paro-and-chris-ryan-new-york-50th-state-senate-race Subscribe to dustinczarny.com for all content and election news updates

“Those results are segregated and isolated, and no one, not even I can see those results until 9:00 on Tuesday night,” Czarny said. “So on 9:00 on Tuesday night, we will release the early voting results, which are stored on our machines, and then we also have the vote by mail results.” https://www.waer.org/news/2024-11-04/more-than-104-000-onondaga-county-residents-have-already-voted-before-election-day Subscribe toContinue reading “More than 104,000 Onondaga County residents have already voted before Election Day – WAER”

“They voted by mail in the pandemic, so maybe eight years since they voted in person and those polling places can change over that time. they need to go to their trusted sources to get information. Don’t Google. Go to our website. We’ve done a lot of work to make that website very accurate andContinue reading “Onondaga County prepares for record voter turnout – WAER”

“Any pen works on our Clear Ballot scanners, whether vote by mail or in person. No need for Sharpies or special ink. Just fill in the voting oval with a regular blue or black ink pen is our recommendation. We also discourage the use of “x” or pencil.” Czarny said via email to the YourContinue reading “Your Stories Q&A: Sharpie, pen, pencil…does it matter what I use to fill out my mail-in ballot? – WSYR 9”

But it is too early and there are too many caveats to draw any conclusions from that initial enthusiasm, said Dustin Czarny, the county’s Democratic elections commissioner. “It’s hopping. It’s really hopping,” he said. “It’s just not indicative of anything until we know on Election Day.” https://www.syracuse.com/politics/cny/2024/10/what-does-enthusiastic-early-voting-in-cny-say-about-winners-and-losers-its-too-early-to-tell.html Subscribe to dustinczarny.com for all content and electionContinue reading “What does enthusiastic early voting in CNY say about winners and losers? It’s too early to tell. – Syracuse.com”

“Our goal is to try to keep everybody at 1/2 hour wait time. That is the standard that we we try to keep at,” Czarny said. “We’ve added early voting sites to do that. We went from 6 to 10 from the last presidential election, and we’ve added staff to these sites. We’ve also addedContinue reading “Early voting off to a strong start in Onondaga County – WAER”