Absentee ballot requests grow as election nears
Counties handling thousands of forms ahead of primary
Custodian of Records Raymond Frankoski stamps the date and time on absentee ballots on Monday in Troy as the Rensselaer County Board of Elections handles thousands of absentee ballots for a June 23 primary. At right, a pile of applications.
The absentee ballot applications are flooding in by the thousands daily at the Rensselaer County Board of Elections, not the usual trickle of a few score in the run-up to a primary vote.
The county board mailed out 50,000 applications and has seen 8,000 come back since the end of last week Democratic Elections Commissioner Ed Mcdonough said Monday.
“We were slammed again today. Three mail bins filled up with about 3,000 ballots came from the post office,” Mcdonough said.
It’s all due to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s executive order to issue absentee ballots as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. Plus throw in a Democratic presidential primary and it’s heating up at board of elections offices.
The Schenectady County Board of Elections posted an announcement on its website to let county voters know what’s going on: “Executive Order 202.15 allows voters who are affected by COVID-19 pandemic and wish to apply to vote by absentee ballot to utilize the absentee ballot forms and check the box for ‘Temporary illness or physical disability’ with no requirement for in-person signature or appearance to be able to access an absentee ballot. The Order contains no change in the application deadlines. Applications for absentee ballots may be made by online submission, mail, email, fax or in person.”
Mcdonough estimated Rensselaer County typically gets about 800 absentee ballot requests during a primary vote. Typically, it’s the minor parties — Conservative, Green, Independence and Working Families — that see primary contests.
“Voters can take advantage of the opportunity the governor gave them to stay home, instead of doing early voting or going to the polls, and vote by mail,” Republican Elections Commissioner Jason Schofield said.
Rensselaer County has the Democratic presidential primary that a court restored to the ballot, a Democratic primary in the 108th Assembly District and a Republican primary for the 19th Congressional District in addition to scattered primaries in East Greenbush and North Greenbush.
The Rensselaer County Board of Elections is spending about $1.65 for each absentee ballot sent out and returned as a cast vote, according to the board. The boards of election in Albany, Saratoga and Schenectady counties did not immediately respond to requests for comment about their situations.
Even though the county has seen a surge in absentee ballots, the board of elections will open early voting sites in Brunswick, Schodack and Troy from June 13-21 and open the regular polls for the June 23 primary. The board will be training election inspectors how to properly deal with social distancing measures for voters who opt to cast their ballots in person.