What Turned Some New York Residents Away From the Early Voting Polls?

For the first time in New York election history early voting was available to residents, but not many New Yorkers took advantage of the opportunity.
In January of this year Governor Andrew Cuomo adopted a law allowing New York voting residents to vote up to a week and a half early instead of on election day on November 5th. Early voting opened on October 26th and ran through November 3rd.
The idea was to allow more people the opportunity to vote, and to get voters who would not typically vote out to the polls. However, the turn out was much less than expected.
Only 1.3 percent of the state’s registered voters came to early voting sites to cast their ballots, according to the New York Post.
Stuck in their ways
The lack of interest could be for many reasons, some residents are simply stuck in their ways and like to stay consistent with what they have always done.
When asked about his plans to continue to vote on election day Brooklyn resident John Teehan said, “Oh, just habit… Tuesday’s convenient for me to vote, so I didn’t need to take advantage of it (early voting).”
The early voting option was made public back in January but many people were still left unaware that voting on any day other than November 5th was allowed.
“Honestly, I wasn’t even aware of the fact that you could vote early. I actually heard it on the radio on the way in. I don’t even know if I’d take advantage of voting early. I’m kind of a creature of habit and I feel like election day is the day that you vote,” said Suffolk County resident Lynn Meyer.
It is all about location
Another issue with early voting was the locations, some residents are used to only traveling a few blocks to vote, but early voting locations were sometimes located farther away from their home.
“I feel like it’s in a place that’s farther away than where I’d normally vote. I vote at the elementary school that my kids went to, which is like two feet from my house,” said Nassau County resident Jodi Kreshover.
Suffolk County resident Donna Schaefer agreed, “We go to the high school in our town and it’s very easy for us to get there and it’s a local election so we know there won’t be long lines.”
Voting at a local school was a trend with Long Island voters and having no early voting locations at schools seemed to be an issue with residents who like to stick to what they have grown accustomed to.
Give it some time
“I decided to vote on November 5th at my local elementary school that normally host the voting… I do know that I have that option (to vote early), but normally I just go on the actual day with my parents,” said Nassau County voter Victoria Kane.
Early voting will continue to be an available option for New Yorkers for years to come, and over time more people may grow interested in the idea and branch out to early voting.