BUFFALO, N.Y. (WBEN) Primary Day part one. If you haven't been paying attention, that is an indication that there is more than one primary this year in New York State. In fact, there are two primaries.
It's a result of the battle over new district lines following the 2020 census.
The battle over those lines eventually led to the decision that New York State
would have to hold primary elections on two separate days, in June and August.
Gubernatorial, Assembly, Judicial races and other local primaries are being held as originally scheduled on Tuesday, June 28. But due to court challenges, congressional and state senate primaries will be held August 23rd.
Twice the primaries also means twice the price.
According to Bloomberg, a primary election typically costs between $40 million and $60 million for such expenses as printing ballots, setting up polling sites, and paying for poll workers, said Douglas Kellner, co-chair of the state Board of Elections. Holding two primaries, then, could cost taxpayers as much as $120 million.
There are 62 counties in New York State.
In Erie County, Republican Elections Commissioner Ralph Mohr said the funding to run a primary comes from the county. "A normal election, on just one day, would run somewhere in the range of $200-thousand to $300-thousand dollars. That takes into account the number of election inspectors that we have, and getting voting machines out to poll sites and preparing ballots."
Mohr said the addition of nine early voting days at 38 sites before both primaries also adds to the expense. "It's basically going to double the amount that we are going to spend." That could push the price (for taxpayers) near $600-thousand.
Would it have been better to postpone all of the primaries until August, and have one election day and one early voting session? That was not possible, said Mohr. "We started 45 days ago with absentee ballots going out to military and overseas individuals for this election. And in nine days we're going to begin the same process for the August election. It would have been easier to have it all on one day, but we're subject to what the state legislature determines, and this is what they wanted."
Albany insider Jack O'Donnell, of O'Donnell and Associates told WBEN it would have made a lot more sense to have just one primary. "We're talking about millions of dollars for each of these primaries. But it's more than that. Voters are confused about what they're voting for, who they're voting for, and when they're voting. Ultimately that impacts turnout," he said. "But like a lot of things in State election law, it doesn't make any sense."