State hopeful benefits of early voting will outweigh cost

Early voting is set to happen for the first time in New York state, and advocates hope the benefits of expanded ballot box access will outweigh the cost and headaches of keeping the polls open for more than a single day.

Starting Saturday, voters in this autumn’s election can cast ballots at select polling locations through Nov. 3, thanks to a new law passed this year. The election then takes a day off before voters can return for a final, full day of balloting on Election Day, Nov. 5.

New York is late to adopt an early voting system; 38 other states already do it in some form. It is rolling out its new system in a relatively quiet election year, ahead of the 2020 presidential contest. Voters this year are mostly picking candidates for county positions, local judges, school boards and municipal government.

Supporters and critics alike hope any hiccups — whether confusion, lack of voter awareness or malfunctioning technology — will be smoothed out by next year, when turnout is expected to soar.

“It looks like it’s going as smoothly as it possibly can,” said Mary Lou Monahan, an elections commissioner in Chenango County, a rural county with just 28,000 active voters in central New York. “There were many sweeping election law changes this year, and this was a big one. This is new territory for everyone.”

Challenges in implementing the system include finding spaces that can accommodate voting booths for several days, finding volunteers who can staff those stations day after day, and keeping the equipment powered up and running properly for the extended period.

There have been complaints from some school officials about having to give up space in gymnasiums and cafeterias for voting machines for a whole school week, rather than one day. Parents have also expressed worry in some areas about adult voters walking through schools to access polling booths.

Local elections officials will also be working for the first time with electronic tablets that poll workers use to verify voter eligibility, rather than the often hefty paper lists used in the past.

Some supporters, including Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo, have said extending the number of days the polls are open could reverse New York’s status as one of the bottom 10 states for voter turnout, though students of early voting systems say that isn’t guaranteed.

“There’s no one silver bullet that increases turnout,” said Susan Lerner of the advocacy group Common