BUFFALO, N.Y. — All eyes are now Tuesday after counties across Western New York counted their final early votes after the polls closed at 5 p.m. Sunday.
The early voting deadline marked the last major milestone ahead of Election Day.
This year’s early period brought in record numbers at the polls in Niagara County, surpassing the last presidential election’s early numbers on Thursday, and as of Saturday night, seeing over 29,000 people already cast their ballots.
But over in Erie County, there was not quite the same enthusiasm in this early period. The county saw 130,000 voters as of Saturday, on pace to be just short of 2020’s 160,000 early voters.
That’s a similar trend we’re seeing nationwide, with 70 million voters already having cast their votes as of 24 hours ago, down 30 million from 2020.
2 On Your Side asked voters what brought them to polls early, and they both said it boiled down to the race for the White House.
Vincent Cauley cast his vote for Donald Trump.
“I think of what's going to be better for the country as a whole, for all 350 million legal citizens,” he said. “What that means is three issues to me: getting out of those wars, the border situation and the economy and reducing inflation.”
Lilly Mariglia said she went with Kamala Harris.
“I really do believe that she is for the people,” she said. “There's other views that I've seen, and I just don't think that they align with what I believe in human rights.”
The final early voting numbers are expected to be available on Monday. The polls will reopen on Election Day on Tuesday at 6 a.m. until 9 p.m.