Cayuga County elections board preparing for June primary election amid pandemic – Auburn Citizen

With the June 23 primary election approaching, absentee ballot applications will be sent to more than 26,000 voters in Cayuga County by the end of this week, according to Cayuga County election commissioners Cherl Heary and Katie Lacey. Gov. Andrew Cuomo issued an executive order requiring election boards to send applications to every eligible primary voter. 

In Cayuga County, every registered Democrat will receive an application. The state’s Democratic presidential primary will be held in June, although there is an ongoing legal battle over whether or not it should be canceled. Locally, there’s a primary for the Democratic nomination in the 24th Congressional District, which includes all of Cayuga County. Dana Balter and Francis Conole are the candidates in that race. 

If Democrats apply for absentee ballots, they will receive separate ballots for the presidential and congressional primaries. According to Lacey, it’s because write-in votes aren’t permitted for presidential elections. But write-ins are accepted for congressional races. 

Some Cayuga County Republicans will receive an application, too. There is a GOP primary in the 126th Assembly District, which includes the city of Auburn and several towns in the southern part of the county. Danny Fitzpatrick and John Lemondes are vying for the party’s nomination in the district. 

Two minor parties — the Conservative and Serve America Movement parties — are holding state committee elections in June. Voters who are enrolled with either of those parties will also receive an absentee ballot application. 

The Cayuga County Board of Elections is encouraging voters to cast absentee ballots. Postage-paid envelopes will be included with the absentee ballot applications. The applications are due June 16. 

“We’re hoping that the absentee ballots are going to be utilized and we’re going to have fewer people going to the polls,” Lacey said. 

If more people vote by absentee ballot, it will help the board reduce the number of poll workers needed for in-person voting. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there are obvious health concerns. Heary and Lacey noted that many of the poll workers are older, and some of them are hesitant about working during the nine-day early voting period or on June 23 — the day of the primary election. 

Heary and Lacey have already made one change due to the expectation that fewer people will vote at poll sites in the county. Earlier this year, the county elections board added a fourth early voting location — Casey Park Recreation Center in Auburn. But early voting won’t happen at the site, at least for the primary election. The county will have three early voting sites: Clifford Park Clubhouse in Auburn and the town halls in Cato and Venice. 

“We decided that if enough people respond to our absentee ballot applications that we shouldn’t need Casey Park,” Heary said. 

For primary election day, there will be some changes to the usual polling location lineup. Instead of hosting voting at the Boyle Center and Schwartz Towers, the new polling location will be Clifford Park. Auburn Grove and Northbrook traditionally are polling sites, but voting will now be held at Auburn Alliance Church. 

There will be safety measures in place for in-person voting. Poll workers will be given personal protective equipment — masks and gloves — and hand sanitizer will be provided. The polling locations will be cleaned at least three times a day — before voting begins, during the day and after voting ends. Keyboards and pens will be sanitized often throughout the day. 

Voters will be asked to maintain social distancing and encouraged to wear masks or face coverings while at the polls. 

With an increased number of absentee ballots, it could affect whether races are decided on election night. Absentee ballots aren’t opened or counted until days after the election.

“We could have enough absentees that we won’t know a winner election night,” Lacey said. “In fact, it’s likely that we won’t.”