Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Early voting begins Saturday in Erie County and across New York State. There will be 38 locations in the county where you can cast your ballot early, or you can vote early by mail for the first time.
Erie County Democratic Elections Commissioner Jeremy Zellner explains the new provision allowing for early voting by mail.
"Folks can request an early vote by mail by going to our website, or giving us a call at (716)-858-8891 and they can cast their ballot right now," said Zellner in an interview with WBEN.
Another option for voters is to go to Board of Elections headquarters on West Eagle Street and vote right there.
Republican Elections Commissioner Ralph Mohr says there is one location in each town and city in Erie County. Meanwhile, there are nine locations, one in each district in the City of Buffalo.
"You can go to any one of the 38 early voting sites that's convenient for you. You do not have to go to that site in your town," explained Mohr with WBEN.
The hours are weekends from 9 a.m. ET until 5 p.m. ET, and on weekdays from 12 p.m. ET until 9 p.m. ET.
Mohr says there were lines outside some of the early voting sites in 2020.
"What we've done is we've tried to minimize the number of lines, because we do expect a very high turnout. We've increased the number of stations to check people in at our busiest sites that we had in our major towns," says Mohr.
Zellner adds the board was able to get a couple more pieces of equipment to help deal with lines.
"It could be that someone may not want to go to the polling place that's closest to them, if they drive 20 minutes to another location, there could be no wait at all. So we want folks to take advantage of it," Zellner said.
Zellner believes early voting will take some of the strain away come Election Day.
"We don't have as many folks cramming in between 6 a.m. and 9 p.m. on Election Day, so they're able to go take their votes and spread it out over those nine days," Zellner noted. "We've had a really good strategy to to recruit new inspectors, and we've got a number of new inspectors that are that have started with us this year, that have been trained, that are just doing early voting and and helping us. So we feel that early voting has taken the strain off Election Day, and that's been a good thing for us."
Election Day is Nov. 5. Early voting ends Nov. 3, and the deadline to register to vote is this Saturday.