Early voting in City of Plattsburgh Democratic Party primary slow

Joe LoTemplio, The Press-Republican, Plattsburgh, N.Y.
·2 min read

PLATTSBURGH — Early voting for next Tuesday’s Democratic Party primary in the City of Plattsburgh has been slow going so far.

“It’s about what we expected,” Clinton County Republican Board of Elections Commissioner David Souliere IV, said.

As of mid-afternoon Friday, 206 Democrats had voted in the primary election out of about 4,600 who are eligible.

The primary features races for the mayor’s seat with Clinton County Legislator Wendell Hughes and local attorney Daniel Lennon facing off; a tilt in the Ward 3 Common Council seat race with incumbent Elizabeth Gibbs facing current Mayor Chris Rosenquest who opted to run for council instead of mayor this year, and in Ward 6 where incumbent Jeff Moore is facing Amy Collin.

The winner of the mayoral primary will face Republican Don Kasprzak, a former mayor of the city who served from 2007 to 2014. Kasprzak also served on the council from 1990 to 1994.

Daily early voting started last Saturday and will run through this Sunday. All early voting has been held at the Clinton County Government Center at 137 Margaret St. in the City of Plattsburgh.

Polls will be open at all normal city polling sites on Tuesday, June 25 from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.

In addition to the 206 voters who showed up to vote early, Souliere said about 150 absentee ballots had been received at the Board of Elections as of Friday.

Souliere said that typically, a primary will attract only 15 to 20 percent of eligible voters.

“We’re at 200, plus about 150 absentees, give or take, so your total amount voted right now is about 350 people,” he said.

“On election day, I would expect there to be four to five hundred, so we might get 900 to 1,000 people total, and that’s about what was expected.”

The busiest day in early voting so far was last Saturday when 54 people turned up to vote.

Souliere said that even though voter turnout for the primary has been slow, it does serve as a good training ground for the general election when turnout is expected to be much greater since it is a presidential election year.

“This is a good preparation for November,” he said.

“We are trying to take the positive from it.”

Early voting continues today at the Government Center from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and on Sunday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

There is no voting on Monday, June 24.