BUFFALO, N.Y. — The Erie County Board of Elections is all geared up for another nine days of early voting, which starts Saturday at noon.
That's at 37 sites around the county including the board headquarters on Eagle Street in downtown Buffalo.
Thousands of COVID-trained greeters and inspectors are prepped for this election cycle in Erie County as voters make their official choice for President, Congress, or the state legislature.
The Democratic Elections Commissioner Jeremy Zellner, who is also the county party chair stresses this point: "The important part of this is for folks to understand that the locations are gonna be safe and secure to come and vote on Election Day and early voting. No one got sick back in June and that was kind of the height of the pandemic.
"And so we're gonna continue to try and keep people socially distant, we're asking folks to wear a mask when you come to the polls and on election day bring a pen if you can."
Zellner added: "For early voting, it's universal. You can go to any one of our 37 sites across the county to vote, but on election day if you wait until election day you have to go to your designated site."
In 2019, 26,000 people went for early voting in Erie County, and in the June limited special election, 3,600 voters did so.
And a quick note about absentee balloting: 95,000 requested and 50,000 returned in this county so far. Zellner says they have this covered as well with talk of potential mail delays of 10 days or so after the election. That might happen if people hold off and send in their postmarked ballot on the actual day of the election.
He says, "If you're concerned about the postal service, you can vote your ballot, put it in the envelope, sign it, fill it out, properly seal it and bring it to any early voting site during early voting and leave it with the inspector in a box."
For all those locations and the hours you can check the Erie County Board of Elections website.
