Early turnout, early warning?

Daily Point

Early voting keeps polling places busy

How to parse the numbers from the first weekend of early voting in New York?

In Nassau County, over 28,000 people voted on Saturday and Sunday, including 12,422 Democrats and 10,631 Republicans.

That’s a relatively even party split compared with 2020, the last time federal and state offices were on the general election ballot. In that year, 20,688 Democrats came out for the first weekend, along with 7,528 Republicans.

Fewer people in total opted for the first days of early voting this time around — 28,240 vs. 35,331 in 2020 — but that was a presidential year, a big draw at the top of the ticket. And this year, the Sunday early vote in Nassau actually slightly outnumbered that of the first Sunday early voting day in 2020, even with Joe Biden and Donald Trump on the ballot.

In Suffolk there were actually more early voters this weekend than during the analogous two-day stretch in 2020: a turnout of 20,549 this year vs. 20,359 in 2020. (The numbers released by the election board didn’t immediately include party breakdown.)

In comparison, New York City saw an unofficial weekend count of just over 97,000 when polls closed on Sunday, and close to 130,000 by Monday evening. A whopping 193,915 had early-voted that first weekend alone in 2020.

The city board of elections does not publicly release a party breakdown for these numbers, according to a spokesman. They do chop up the numbers by borough, however. And this year, Manhattan led the way in weekend early voting, as opposed to 2020, when Brooklyn posted the highest total.

Important caveats: Early voting has only existed in New York State since 2019, so there isn’t a prior gubernatorial election year for comparison. Other factors can impact early voting: In Suffolk, the number of early voting sites jumped from 12 in 2020 to 27 this year. The most recent general election early voting also took place during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. And the first weekend is just a small sample size of the early — and overall — voting: there’s lots more ballots to come.

— Mark Chiusano @mjchiusano

Talking Point

Click on Suffolk BOE, and Bingo, you get the GOP!

Searching for some election-related information in Suffolk County?

Be careful what you search for — and how.

If you use the search engine Bing.com, and type in Suffolk County Board of Elections, the box on the right of your screen might be the first place you look. All appears correct at first glance. But if you click “website,” you aren’t directed to the Suffolk County Board of Elections website.

Instead, searchers find themselves at suffolkcountygop.com — with a large picture of Republican gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin and two words: Vote Republican.

A deeper dive into the box labeled Suffolk County Board of Elections on the Bing search finds that every social media site redirects to the Suffolk GOP, too, mostly labeled with a red elephant and “The Hunt for Republican November.”

The switcheroo has been going on for most of Monday.

It’s unclear how the change was made, and why it’s stuck, even though it’s apparently been reported to Bing. It’s possible that someone changed the name, address and phone number associated with the Suffolk GOP site to “Suffolk County Board of Elections,” forcing the search engine to find the wrong website. And Bing, which is owned by Microsoft, does allow readers to suggest an edit.

“We learned about the error today and it was immediately referred to the Suffolk County attorney and the IT commissioner to get this corrected with Microsoft,” said Gail Lolis, the county Board of Elections’ Democratic deputy commissioner. “We have no control over it.”

Meanwhile, searching via Google gives the top result as the New York State Board of Elections, followed by Suffolk County’s general website — which quickly reminds residents of the cyberattack that has caused much of the county’s web functions — including the Board of Elections website — to remain down.

— Randi F. Marshall @RandiMarshall

Pencil Point

Against the purpose

For more cartoons, visit www.newsday.com/nationalcartoons

Final Point

Ballot prop politics

Voters in New York can be fickle about ballot proposals. They voted down an environmental bond act in 1990. And last year, voters put the kibosh on constitutional amendments addressing same-day voter registration and absentee voting.

It is in that context that supporters of the Clean Water, Clean Air, and Green Jobs bond act are trying to raise awareness about the measure on the Nov. 8 ballot.

“This really is a once in a generation opportunity to vote yes for clean water, a more sustainable future, and a healthier environment,” said Adrienne Esposito, executive director of the Citizens Campaign for the Environment at a Monday morning news conference.

She described the proposal to borrow $4.2 billion through the sale of bonds as “not a luxury item, it’s a necessity.” At the Monday event was Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone, who noted that Suffolk was on the “front lines” of the battle against climate change. Patrick Halpin, former Suffolk county executive and current water authority chairman, termed the bond act an “investment,” similar to past efforts to protect the pine barrens or expand sewers. He was one of multiple speakers who termed the issue “bipartisan,” and a previous news conference on the topic included Long Island Republicans such as State Sens. Alexis Weik and Mario Mattera.

Still, those inclined to worry about this year’s bond act are not exactly thrilled by the tightening of polls in the top-ticket governor’s race, or the political focus on inflation. Esposito argued that there won’t be a tax increase associated with the proposal.

Opposition to the bond proposal has not been quite so open, organized, or fervent as the anti-amendment push last year. Only two ballot issue committees show up in the state’s campaign finance database for the year — New Yorkers for Competitive Elections, and For the Many Environmental Action Inc. — with limited spending indicated in the not-very-up-to-date disclosures.

One avenue of attack has been the labor standards included in the bond proposal, including what one blog post from the Empire Center for Public Policy calls its “buy-American provisions.” The post from the fiscally conservative think tank argues that such standards “prevent the purchase of lowest-cost materials, further increasing project costs.” Yet elsewhere, the piece includes praise for some of the “justifiable infrastructure investments” called for in the act.

Another complicating factor is that bond acts fall under the radar in hot political races. While the state Conservative and Libertarian parties have come out against the bond act, Conservative chairman Gerard Kassar told The Point Monday that the party started running radio ads for gubernatorial hopeful Lee Zeldin, but hadn’t done the same against the bond act. “We have limited resources,” Kassar said, “and I focused them all on Zeldin.”

— Mark Chiusano @mjchiusano