Saratoga Springs, as the largest incorporated city in Saratoga County, will get an early voting location in time for voting this fall, during the federal midterm elections. This comes after Gov. Kathy Hochul signed the "Make Voting Easy Act" into law.
State Assembly member Carrie Woerner (D-Saratoga Springs) said the measure was important as the 2020 election showed just how much people wanted early voting.
Senate Deputy Leader Michael Gianaris (D-Queens) brought the bill to the Senate.
“To increase faith in our democracy, people should be able to vote more easily and know election results in a timely manner. That includes ensuring voters do not wait on lengthy lines to vote early, and requiring absentee ballots to be counted more expeditiously,” the Senate Deputy Leader said in a statement. Along with the "Make Voting Easy" bill, he championed another that will count absentee ballots by election night.
Saratoga Springs Supervisor Matt Veitch has been a proponent of the changes.
"The idea of having more places for early voting is great,” he said in an interview today. "I give the governor kudos for signing it."
[Read our earlier coverage here.]
Voters in earlier elections had to go to Wilton or Ballston Spa to cast early ballots. Board of Elections commissioners chose the locations for early voting sites, which followed state guidelines at the time.
The new law also requires a location for every 40,000 people in a county. That could add at least two early voting locations to the county. It says the new locations should be put near mass transit whenever possible.
This has been an issue for Saratoga Springs Supervisor Tara Gaston. She has said that some people in the city rely heavily on mass transit, and the location of the polls in Wilton and Ballston Spa made voting there difficult for some.
Both Veitch and Gaston, said the county should have the money to open a new location, that the state should also be providing some financial support through grants and that the county Board of Elections will have to prioritize this.
The county’s Board of Elections will decide the location of the voting site, though Veitch believes the city’s Department of Accounts will also have a say. The state will give the county more guidance on the law in the coming weeks. Likely, the Board of Elections will come forward with an idea for a location and a projected cost for the full Board of Supervisors to consider.
Gaston said the county should prioritize the creation of the location.
She added: "I do think the county has the resources to fulfill the requirements."
The law says that “the largest city in the county…shall have at least one polling place designated for early voting, and to the extent practicable if such city or municipality has public transportation routes, such polling place shall be situated along such transportation routes.”
Gaston credited Woerner on the specific language of the law.
"Woerner was a big resource on this,” Gaston said. "She made sure the language that was there really benefited our community."