Counties pick sites for early voting

Voters to get 9 days to file ballots at centralized polling places

How far voters will need to travel to take advantage of the state’s expanded election calendar this fall could depend on what county they live in.

The number of polling sites open for the nine days leading up to Election Day on Nov. 5 will vary based on the county, with Schenectady County providing the most sites per voter in the Capital Region and Saratoga and Rensselaer counties offering the minimum required by state law.

This is a new process for county election officials, who are making their best guesses on how to prepare for the expansion of voting days approved by state lawmakers and Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo earlier this year as part of a package of reforms.

“It’s very difficult to figure out what to expect since we’ve never had it before,” said Rensselaer County Republican Elections

Commissioner Jason Schofield, who is skeptical there will be much demand before Election Day.

Rensselaer County, which has 107,464 voters, will provide early voting at the Brunswick and Schodack town halls.

The new law requires counties to maintain at least one polling site for every 50,000 voters.

Saratoga County, which has 162,883 voters, will have three sites. Schenectady County, however, is planning four sites for its 101,574 voters and Albany County has chosen six sites for 203,621 voters.

Schenectady County Democratic Elections Commissioner Amy Hild said the board doubled the required number of sites because they wanted to be as prepared as possible this fall.

“We’re not entirely sure about what to expect with turnout, but we do think it will be popular this year,” Hild said.

Schenectady County will offer voting in Glenville, Schenectady, Niskayuna and Rotterdam. Albany County will offer sites in Albany, East Berne, Bethlehem, Colonie, Cohoes and Guilderland.

Based on voter registration data, Democrats heavily dominate in Albany and Schenectady counties, while Republicans hold the highest registration in Saratoga County. Democrats outnumber Republicans by a narrower margin in Rensselaer County.

In addition to selecting the appropriate number of sites, county boards also needed to find sites that they could use for nine extra days, which presented a problem for some traditional polling places, such as schools and churches.

The boards also tried to spread the sites out evenly across the county, while also being near population centers. In order to strike this balance, Saratoga County put its polling sites in Wilton, Ballston Spa and Clifton Park.

Counties will likely be utilizing electronic poll books and on-demand ballot printers, which will let voters use any early polling site they want. If this new technology isn’t available in time for November, election officials will direct voters to specific sites.

The rollout in November is considered a trial run for 2020, when the presidential election is expected to drive much higher voter turnout. Once early voting takes effect, it will be used for all primary and general elections.

“We’ll have to make changes as we find out how people react to this,” Saratoga County Republican Elections Commissioner Roger Shiera said.

“Nobody really knows what to expect.”

Capital Region counties agreed to open their polling sites for the same hours. Voting will be possible on the weekends from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.,

Monday and Wednesday noon to 8 p.m. and Tuesday, Thursday and Friday will be 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.