June 25 is Primary Day
By Ashley M. Casey
Associate Editor
While much of Onondaga County is abuzz because of the issue of early polling places for the general election this fall, many voters will head to the polls June 25 to select primary candidates.
For the Democratic Party, primaries will be held for Onondaga County Legislature Districts 7, 15 and 16 as well as in the city of Syracuse for city councilor-at-large, commissioner of education and 3rd District city councilor. The Working Families Party is also holding a primary in Onondaga County Legislature Districts 7 and 9.
Several suburban towns are seeing primary challenges in the Republican, Independence and Conservative parties.
Michele Sardo, Republican elections commissioner for Onondaga County, said primaries are a chance for candidates to “get their voice out there,” and people are increasingly taking that chance.
“Some of these candidates don’t like the way the incumbents are [governing]. People are trying to put their voice out there,” she said. “I’m seeing more and more of this at the primaries each year.
Sardo said she is seeing “more opportunity to ballot, which are write-in campaigns” as well.
Write-in candidates, she said, have more of an uphill battle than candidates who successfully petitioned to appear on the ballot.
“The candidate needs to go out and push hard so voters know [their] name will not be on the ballot — you need to write it in,” Sardo said.
For a list of polling places, primary candidates or to look up your voter registration and sample ballot, visit ongov.net/elections.
Early voting sites set for November election
For this fall’s general election, voters in Onondaga County will be able to cast their ballots at six early voting sites across the county between Oct. 26 and Nov. 3. According to voting reforms passed by New York state, counties are now required to have at least one polling place open for early voting for every 50,000 registered voters. With about 300,000 registered voters, Onondaga County is required to have six sites.
The early polling places will be located at Clay Town Hall, DeWitt Town Hall, LaFayette Fire Station 1, Van Buren Town Hall, Armond Magnarelli Community Center and Southwest Community Center, the latter two of which are in the city of Syracuse.
According to local Democratic Party leaders, Onondaga County is entitled to a total of eight early polling places. Assemblymembers Pam Hunter, Al Stirpe and Bill Magnarelli, urged Onondaga County to consider adding two more sites at Cicero Town Hall and Onondaga Community College in a joint letter to County Executive Ryan McMahon.
“Thousands of people come to or pass by OCC every day, making it both a convenient and accessible place to vote,” they wrote. “Also, the large population in the northern part of the county — with the towns of Cicero and Clay — would benefit from an additional site. Cicero Town Hall is available as a possible location. But without question, OCC should be designated as an early voting site.”
Democratic Elections Commissioner Dustin Czarny was in favor of adding these sites, but Republican Elections Commissioner Michele Sardo opposed the idea because of political and financial concerns.
“I’m following what the law had said and what the Democrats put in there. We only needed five but Dustin and I agreed on six,” Sardo told Eagle Newspapers.
Sardo said she believed the Democrats’ push for a polling place at OCC was politically motivated because the students would be more likely to vote for Democratic candidates.
In addition, Sardo said the county has not yet calculated the cost for this year’s general election. The 2019-20 state budget includes $25 million for early voting and allots $30,000 per polling place, but Sardo said she and Czarny are still working on selecting which poll book to use and determining how many inspectors they will need to hire.
“Right now there is no funding for 2020, so this cost would come out of the county and county taxpayers,” she said.
Democratic leaders Hunter, Stirpe and Magnarelli said they were “deeply disappointed” that the county planned to have only six early voting sites.
“We are deeply disappointed that Onondaga County has failed to take full advantage of New York State’s Early Voting Program. The state, along with our entire CNY delegation, worked hard to not only enact early voting, but also to fund it,” their letter reads. “The county is never shy about requesting additional funding from the state and support for any number of issues and items. The request we heard loud and clear from our county leaders prior to adopting early voting was to make sure it had adequate funding. We delivered.”
The elections commissioners had until May 29 to submit their final plan.
“I regret to report that I have been unable to convince my counterpart at Onondaga County Board of Elections to agree to expand early voting to eight sites in 2019,” Czarny said in a statement.
Czarny said many opponents of early voting “also opposed the expansion of sites that would have helped the towns of Camillus, Cicero, Manlius, Marcellus, Onondaga, and Skaneateles on the fear [that] the 10,000 county residents who attend Onondaga Community College might vote against their beliefs.”
“At the end of the day the taxpayers of Onondaga County are losing $60,000 in guaranteed NYS funding to provide less access,” Czarny said.
Primaries in the northern suburbs
Republican
Town of Cicero Supervisor (vote for 1)
William H. Meyer Jr.
Chester A. Dudzinski Jr.
Cicero Town Councilor (vote for 2)
Michael J. Becallo
Nancy L. White
Richard E. Cushman
Town of Lysander Supervisor (vote for 1)
Robert A. Wicks
Joseph P. Saraceni
Conservative
Onondaga County Legislator 1st District (vote for 1)
Brian F. May
Opportunity to ballot (write-in)
Town of Lysander Supervisor (vote for 1)
Robert Wicks
Opportunity to ballot
Lysander Town Justice (vote for 1)
Charles J. Mantione Jr.
Opportunity to Ballot
Lysander Town Councilor (vote for 2)
Jeffrey J. Kudarauskas
Eugene F. Dinsmore
Opportunity to ballot
Independence
Onondaga County Legislator 1st District (vote for 1)
Brian F. May
Opportunity to ballot
Town of Lysander Supervisor (vote for 1)
Opportunity to Ballot
Lysander Town Justice (vote for 1)
Charles J. Mantione Jr.
Opportunity to ballot
Lysander Town Town Councilor (vote for 2)
Peter J. Moore
Jeffrey J. Kudarauskas
Opportunity to ballot
Town of Salina Councilor – 1st Ward (vote for 1)
Nicholas R. Paro
Opportunity to ballot
