Primary in Saratoga Springs
Saratoga County Elections Board (2021)
Saratoga County Board of Elections sent out election information earlier this week. Races in Saratoga Springs include all four commission seats, the mayorship, and two supervisors who represent the city on the county board.
The Working Families Party in Saratoga Springs is holding a primary, but the other parties are not. The primary race in Saratoga Springs within the Working Families Party is town Supervisor.
Incumbent Tara Gaston will face Bruce Altimar and Gabriel O’Brien, officials at the Saratoga County Board of Elections said.
This primary comes after a legal fight that determined some candidates on the countywide primary, though members of another party, may indeed also run in this primary and be listed as the candidate for the Working Families Party.
The board of elections plans to have sample ballots ready by later this week.
- Primary Election Deadlines, as listed on the website:
- Registering to vote for the first time: May 28
- Submit an address change: June 2
- Change your political party: February 14
- Submit an absentee ballot application by mail: June 15
- Submit an absentee ballot application in-person: June 21
- Return your voted absentee ballot by mail: Postmarked by June 22; BOE must receive your ballot by June 29
- Return your voted absentee ballot in-person: June 22 by close of polls at 9pm
The pandemic and the Glens Falls economy
The Glens Falls area has bounced back economically, somewhat, from the deepest throes of the pandemic, according to numbers released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics earlier this month. They cover numbers from February 2020 to February 2021, and some numbers compare 2019 and 2020.
Unemployment rose about 20% last March as compared to March 2019. Overall unemployment has recovered some, and now, it is just 5% off the unemployment rate from February 2020.
Jobs that are still lagging: “other services.” This is defined partly as, dry cleaning and laundry services, personal care services, death care services, pet care services, photofinishing services, temporary parking services, and dating services, among many others. That sector was still off 21% in February 2021 compared to February 2020. Leisure and hospitality was off 8.1% during the same period.
Average hourly wages for a collection of occupations shown in the reporting (cashiers, counter workers, accountants/auditors, general operations managers and others) is about 88% of the national average, at $23.92 per hour. Average weekly wages in Warren County were $927 and $906 in Washington County in February 2021.
Editor's note: We normally run "Briefly Noted" on Fridays. We simply ran out of time, and posting today.