BUFFALO (WBEN) - A contested mayoral race that pits incumbent write-in candidate Mayor Byron Brown against Democratic Primary victor and nominee India Walton is expected to provide a major boost to voter participation in the City of Buffalo.
"We think that voting could be 50-60% in the city with the mayoral race," said Jeremy Zellner, Democratic commissioner of the Erie County Board of Elections prior to the early voting period beginning Saturday.
According to Republican BoE Commissioner Ralph Mohr, the first weekend of early voting supports the expectation of a higher turnout, as roughly 7,800 Erie County residents cast their votes Saturday and Sunday.
"The voting was consistent with what we had received the first year we had early voting, which was a great deal of enthusiasm by the voters of Erie County to exercise the option of early voting," said Mohr. "On the first day of early voting, which was this past Saturday, over half the individuals who showed up at the polls for early voting, came from the City of Buffalo, so they mayor's race is certainly generating a great deal of interest, at least in the first few days, of early voting."
While early voting numbers are strong so far, especially in the city, Mohr said it's still nothing like the participation seen for last year's Presidential Election, so it's not like people have to worry about standing at line at the polls.
"We saw unprecedented both on Election Day and early voting," said Mohr. "Last year, we had lines at virtually all the early voting sites that continued well beyond even the close of the polls.
"We see no lines to that magnitude this year, and we didn't expect to have any," Mohr continued. "However, it still shows that there's a great deal of interest in the local races this year, and we are running comparable to what we experienced in the last local election and even a little bit more in the City of Buffalo."
