Mail-in Ballots

Monday is the last day for those involved in tough elections in Erie County to object to some votes cast, before the final count starts Tuesday.

It's going to be a long November for some local political candidates in Erie County, with counting of mailed-in ballots weeks away and the final deadline after Thanksgiving.

Today is the deadline to apply for a mail-in ballot, as Election Day is a week away.

By the time the second day of Erie County's early voting closed Sunday night, 4.5% of the county's voters had cast their ballots. Erie County Republican Elections Commissioner Ralph Mohr said that translated into 28,000 ballots during the first weekend of early voting - more than the total number of ballots cast in last year's general election.

Early voting begins in New York on Saturday, and continues through Nov. 1, two days before Election Day.

The COVID-19 pandemic has led many voters to choose to cast their ballots by mail this year. In New York, every eligible voter can vote by absentee ballot if they are worried about the virus, but the rules are still a bit complicated. WBFO Albany Correspondent Karen DeWitt sat down with the League of Women Voters' Jennifer Wilson to sort it all out.

Thousands of absentee ballots were being mailed out Friday in parts of Western New York. As expected, concerns for COVID have resulted in a sharp rise in requests.

Absentee ballot requests are piling up at the Erie County Board of Elections with Election Day eight weeks away. Already, there have been nearly 40,000.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo has signed executive orders that he said will help ensure safe and secure voting in November’s elections.

The mass of debris behind Buffalo's Main Post Office on William Street is part of five mail-sorting machines removed since the June primary election. The president of the union representing workers he isn't sure an avalanche of mail ballots for the presidential election in November can be sorted without those machines.