Early voting totals in Ulster County were judged to be ‘pretty good’ in comparison with other similar off-year elections. Through Monday night, totals for October 28, 29 and 30, showed that 2899 voters cast their ballots early at the seven available sites (see below for locations and the rest of the week’s schedule.)
“That’s pretty good for us,” said Ulster County’s Democratic Commissioner of Elections Ashley Torres. “I have all the numbers from all the years. The pandemic years were not as robust. 2019 which also had a District Attorney’s race at the top of the ticket…at this same point we were at 2462. (Early voting) in the general electionin 2021 wasn’t a good comparison because of Covid, but we had 1455 at this time two years ago.”
The 2022 early voting turnout was the largest. In races for two separate congressional seats in the county, state senate and assembly and governor, the first weekend saw totals of 4760, which was even more that the presidential election of 2020, when 4059 turned up for early balloting.
As far as who voted, the balloting followed recent patterns in the county. “Way more Democrats, way, way more,” said Torres, who explained that only the first two days of balloting were separated by party at this time. “First two days, 1419 were Democrats; 215 Republicans; 263 were registered voters who belonged to no party; there were 22 conservatives, 7 from the Working Families Party; 24 other, for a total of 1950.”
The breakdown comes out to 72.8% Democratic; 11% Republican; 13.5% no party; and just shy of 3% scattered among conservatives, Working Families, and others. According to Torres, last year Democrats accounted for 69 percent of early votes; 13 percent were Republicans; 13.5 percent had no party affiliation and the rest are scattered among minor parties.
Torres said that there have been no problems with the county’s new voting machines. Ulster County has switched from its longtime vendor Dominion to Hart Intercivic. The new systems, says the county elections website,“include an ADA compliant Ballot Marking Device…”
“There are no lines,” said Torres, of the early voting sites. “It’s very quick and easy, takes five minutes or less. With the new machines you have a paper marked ballot that you scan through the machines, exactly the same process as before — color your box with a pen and zip it through the machine.”
After some controversy last year regarding the opening and scanning of absentee ballots, Torres said absentee ballot can be opened and scanned before election day, though not counted. Also, she said, there‘s no mechanism for a candidate’s lawyer to come in and arbitrarily challenge ballots, a process that has dragged election results from being reported promptly. “They can come and watch…none have so far. But all they can do is watch. The decisions, based on rules, are left to the commissioners (Torres and Republican Commissioner John Quigley.)”
Early voting for the November 7 election will take place through Sunday, November 5 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on November 1, November 3, November 4 and November 5; noon to 8 p.m. on November 2. Locations for early voting will be at the Olive American Legion Hall, 26-28 Mountain Road, Shokan; Midtown Neighborhood Center, 467 Broadway, Kingston; the New Paltz Community Center, 3 Veterans Drive, New Paltz; Saugerties Senior Center, 207 Market Street, Saugerties; Ellenville Public Library, 40 Center Street, Ellenville and the Marlborough Town Hall, 21 Milton Turnpike, Milton.
Residents will be able to vote at any of the early voting locations. On election day, November 7, voting will take place at poll sites in the home districts.
To learn more about the candidates running in the towns of Woodstock, Hurley, Saugerties, Gardiner, New Paltz, the Village of New Paltz, the county legislators, Kingston alderman, Ulster County district attorney, county executive and the ballot propositions on the back of the ballot, visit hudsonvalleyone.com.
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