Long lines at polling locations continue heading into the last weekend before Election Day, with hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers still taking advantage of early voting.
After Friday, there are only two days left of early voting in New York. Almost 2 million New Yorkers voted over the first six days early voting was available. The large demand has caused some locations to offer extended hours.
Spectrum News 1 checked one location and spoke with voters.
Almost 1.3 million New Yorkers outside New York City have taken advantage of the early voting period, with about 27,000 of those ballots coming from Saratoga County, where upwards of 4,000 voters have filed through six polling locations every day since last Saturday.
Those numbers don’t include Friday, but the pace appeared to remain the same with a steady flow voters at one particular polling location. As a result, the county board of elections office extended its hours to 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. heading into the final two days of early voting this weekend.
Voters on Friday sounded appreciative of the option.
“You know, it takes a lot of the stress off of needing to be there on a certain day, and then being in line with 10,000 people with you,” said Ruth Schaaf, of Galway.
“Being disabled, I feel like there is a little less crowd, more space,” said Ary Hewitt of Waterford.
“Inside it went real smooth," said Bradley Toohill, of South Glens Falls. "Showed my ID, they scanned it, signatures and put in my votes.”
Taking a look at other counties across the state, more than 100,000 voters cast ballots in Erie County; while there were nearly 90,000 early voters in Monroe County; more than 53,000 in Onondaga County; about 24,404 in Ulster County; and more than 41,000 in Albany County.
This marks the second presidential election cycle with early voting, a practice meant to improve access for all voters. But there was some pushback in the past, citing concerns about ill-informed voting, logistics and fraud risks.
“We have security plans that we’ve submitted to the state board, as far as physical security for our staff, the ballots and the machines,” Saratoga County Democratic Board of Elections Commissioner Cassandra Bagramian said.
“We lock the ballots up into a vault that has a Republican key and a Democratic key, and at the end of the night, that’s locked so one party can’t sneak in there and do anything," Saratoga County Republican Board of Elections Commissioner Joe Suhrada said. "That’s exactly how the system is designed.”
Those interested in voting have until Sunday to do so. Check in with your county board of elections office for details.