Should NY Early Voting Be Longer Than 9 Days? [POLL]

NEW YORK — Now is the time to start deciding who you are going to vote for, because early voting starts Saturday, Oct. 29 in New York and continues through Sunday, Nov. 6.

This year’s general election has New York registered voters picking a governor and lieutenant governor, a comptroller, the attorney general, a United States senator, a full slate of congressional representatives, the entire state Senate and Assembly, as well as state Supreme Court justices and some local officials down ballot. There is even a clean water and air environmental bond act to vote for or against, and depending on where you live, a library budget or two.

The first time New Yorkers were allowed to vote early in person was in 2019.

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Some 256,000 people voted early during the 2019 general election, which was a non-presidential, non-midterm election, Spectrum Local News reported.

New York’s nine days of early voting — the Monday before Election Day is not included — is among the shortest length of time for early in-person voting in the nation.

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, Arizona lets people vote starting 27 days before the election, while in Virginia people can cast their votes 45 days before Election Day.

Even the U.S. Virgin Islands gets 11 days to vote early, though early voting ends three days before the election.

In New York, any registered voter can take advantage of early voting at any early voting site in the county in which they are registered.

To confirm you are registered to vote and to find out where you can vote early, use this Voter Lookup website. The results will also tell you where your Election Day poll site is located, as well as give you a list of candidates who are on the ballot.

Early voting isn’t the only way to take care of your civic obligation, as convenient as it can be.

You can always wait until Tuesday, Nov. 8 to go to your local polling place to cast your ballot. The polls around the state will be open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.

It’s too late to apply for an absentee ballot online or by letter, fax and email, but you can apply in person for an absentee ballot at your county’s Board of Elections up until Nov. 7.

Once you’ve filled out the absentee ballot, you can put it in the mail. The last day to postmark the absentee ballot is Nov. 8, and the ballot must be received by the Board of Elections no later than Nov. 15.

You can also take your absentee ballot to your county Board of Elections office no later than 9 p.m. Nov. 8. Or you can drop it off at an early voting site in your county between Oct. 29 and Nov. 6. You can also drop it off at a polling site in your county by 9 p.m. Nov. 8.

Full instructions on absentee voting in New York can be found here.

Now it’s your chance to offer an opinion. Vote in our unscientific poll and tell us what you think in the comments.