BUFFALO, N.Y. (WBEN) -Countdown to NY-23. We're a day away from a highly anticipated, yet confusing congressional primary in Western New York.
It is the first August Primary ever in the state. It's still uncertain how much interest there is and what the turnout will be.
"This is an anything-can-happen primary," said strategist Jack O'Donnell
with O'Donnell and Associates. "If there is a broad turnout, or a little higher
turnout, it will certainly favor Carl Paladino. If it's a smaller insider turnout, that favors Nick Langworthy. It could go either way and depends so much on who shows up," he said.
Adding to the uncertainty, is voter confusion over district boundaries.
“Confusing” is one way to describe this year’s primary election season.
The state’s highest court ruled earlier this year that redistricting maps drawn up by Democrats were unconstitutional. Therefore, the maps had to be redrawn.
The gubernatorial primaries were held in June.
Primaries for Congress or state Legislature candidates were pushed back until August 23.
O'Donnell said the district boundaries and rules this year are confusing
even for the experts. Adding, "It has to be confusing for regular voters."
"I worked on races a decade ago where the redistricting process was
much simpler and we still saw hundreds, if not thousands of voters who found out they were in a different district and could not vote in a race that they had hoped to vote in. "I expect a fair amount of confusion on Tuesday," he said.
To find out if you are eligible to vote, check with the Erie County Board of elections HERE. You can also see a sample ballot.
"We did have some instances in which people showed up for early voting only to find out that that were eligible to vote, but not in the race they thought they were going to be voting in," said Erie County Republican Elections Commissioner Ralph Mohr.
In Erie County, there are two congressional districts on the ballot (NY-23 and NY-26). There is also a Republican and Conservative State Senate Primary between Sen. Ed Rath and Joel Giambra. Giambra dropped out of the race, but his name will still appear on the ballot.
Only about a third of registered voters in Erie County are eligible to vote in the August primary.