By Rachel Musman
With the 2020 election one day away, early voting has been all over the news. After articles came out about the risk of votes through mail-in ballots possibly not being counted, early in-person voting has been extremely popular. It is predicted that 100 million Americans will have voted before tomorrow, election day. This number is historic, and has already surpassed two thirds of the votes casted in the entire 2016 presidential election.
The atmosphere of the early voting locations has been very dependent on the political climate of the area, but in the tri-state area, specifically Irvington, most individuals report few problems with early voting.
One Irvington woman, 53, who preferred to remain anonymous, voted at the Greenburgh Town Hall on Tuesday, October 27th, and said her experience was extremely peaceful.
“At no time did I feel threatened or unsafe. The whole process took two hours, but people respected the social distancing protocol and I got to speak to the folks around me. It felt like a community effort in a way, as people were bonding over the experience of voting in the chaos that is 2020.”
At the Greenburgh location, the Covid-19 protocol was very well executed. There were two separate lines, one for people over the age of 60 and one for everyone else. There were marks on the floor every six feet to help social distancing, and the actual voting part of the process took around three minutes. There were also food trucks parked outside, which definitely brought a positive mood to the voters.
English teacher Mr. Jason Williams, who voted on October 24, the first day of early voting, agreed that it went smoothly.
“Despite some dreary weather, it was almost a festival-type atmosphere. I got to know several people on line as I waited about two hours to vote,” Mr. Williams said. “Most people seemed excited, energized and ready to do their civic duty.”
Many people are hoping that the early voting will assist in getting election results quicker. However, with the increased number of mail-in ballots and the variety of procedures regarding when states begin counting them, it could be a while before all the results are in, even in New York.
New York will release unofficial results from in-person early and Election Day voting on election night, but absentee ballots may take several days depending on the county. During the primary it took weeks to finish counting all the ballots, for example.
