LOCKPORT, N.Y. — Local boards of elections are reporting higher early voting numbers after two full days of early voting, an indicator of higher demand to vote this Presidential year compared to 2020.
There are six days remaining to vote early in New York so only time will tell if the hot start continues or if things end flat.
For a third straight day, lines stretched out and around the Amherst Senior Center on Monday with at times a wait of 90 minutes to early vote; a good time to mention, that Erie County residents can vote at any of the 38 early polling sites and not just the one closest to them.
"The first day was a little stronger, but yesterday it was about the same as to what it was four years ago and we've already started strong across the county today so we'll see," said Erie County Board of Elections Commissioner Jeremy Zellner (D).
The two-day early ballot total according to the Erie County BOE was 33,779. Four years ago it was 28,214.
In Niagara County, the early voting site at the Cornell Cooperative Extension in Lockport saw a steady clip of people Monday afternoon. If a line did form, it was only to the door and only took a few minutes to work through.
"It's busy and it's good to see it's busy people are getting out and exercising their right to vote," said Niagara County Board of Elections Commissioner Lora Allen (D).
"It was probably five minutes in and out," said Ruth Houserman.
Ruth and her husband Kim who live in Cambria came out to vote early for the first time. They noted that nice weather didn't hurt in getting them out.
"I thought there was going to be a whole lot of lines, but we got right to the person, they had everything on computers so it picked up our name all I had to do is sign, stick it in the machine... quite easy actually," Kim Houserman said.
The Niagara County Board of Elections reported a total of 8,557 ballots after two days of early voting, just over double what they saw in 2020 with 3,925 after Day 2.
The early voting story has been almost the same in Chautauqua County as in Niagara County.
Chautauqua County Elections Commissioner Brian Abram (R) told 2 On Your Side they are on track to see double the early vote that they saw in 2020.
"We do have an expanded amount of time that's been required and we have put in more poll sites, we currently have four that are up and operational and it looks like it's taking a good roll of our voters to vote early," Abram said.
According to the Chautauqua Co. BOE, 2,563 ballots were cast early during the first two days of the last Presidential election. This year they've received 4,551.
Niagara County Elections Commissioner Lora Allen added that while the early numbers have been nice to see there is still plenty of time for registered voters to get out.
"We will be open today from 12-8 tomorrow from 12-8 and the remainder of the week until November 3rd from 9 to 5."