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The Cayuga County Board of Elections, which had three early voting locations in 2019, decided to add a site this year due to the presidential election. 

The additional polling location will be in Auburn, according to Cayuga County Elections Commissioner Katie Lacey. Casey Park Recreation Center will be the second early voting site in the city. Clifford Park Clubhouse, which was used last year, will continue to host early voting in 2020. 

Lacey said the Casey Park site should make it easier for city voters on the west end or those who live in surrounding towns, such as Aurelius, to cast ballots during the early voting period. 

"On the first and last day of early voting, we were quite crowded at Clifford Park," she said. "And with a presidential year, we figure we're going to have more people." 

Venice Town Hall will be the southern Cayuga County early voting site again this year, but there has been a change in the northern part of the county. Instead of using Conquest Town Hall, the elections board will have an early voting location at Cato Town Hall. 

The move to Cato, Lacey explained, is due to the town having a slightly larger population and being more accessible to voters in other northern towns. 

The four early voting sites will be in place for the presidential primary and 50th state Senate District special election on April 28, the congressional, state and local primary election on June 23 and the Nov. 3 general election. 

Early voting for the presidential primary and special election begins Saturday, April 18, and runs through Sunday, April 26. The county's early voting locations will be open from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, April 18 and 25, and Sunday, April 19 and 26, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday, April 20, and Thursday, April 23, from noon to 8 p.m. Tuesday, April 21, and Wednesday, April 22, and 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday, April 24. 

The county's usual slate of Election Day polling locations will be open on April 28 — the day of the presidential primary and special election. 

"We're trying to make it as convenient as possible," Lacey said. "Obviously, waiting in line is not convenient. We did end up with some waiting time at Clifford Park. Just volume-wise, we did need to look at another location." 

Cayuga County was one of the top-performing counties during early voting last year. It had the sixth-highest turnout — 3.91% — in the nine-day period. 

State law requires counties to have one early voting center for every 50,000 registered voters. With 48,644 registered voters in the county, Cayuga must have a minimum of one early voting center. 

However, the elections board opted to open three last year because of the county's geography. With four sites this year, Cayuga will have three more than the minimum required by law. 

Lacey is hoping the state will provide additional funding to help counties administer early voting. The 2019-20 state budget included nearly $25 million for early voting — $10 million for counties to implement early voting and $14.7 million for technology upgrades, such as the purchase of electronic poll books. 

The county elections board will use the remaining funds from one state grant to purchase 12 more electronic poll books, which replaced paper copies of the voter registration rolls. There is some funding remaining from another grant that will help the county administer elections this year. 

Gov. Andrew Cuomo and state legislators are beginning to negotiate a new state budget. But Cuomo's executive budget proposal didn't include new money for early voting. 

"The state really needs to look at it," Lacey said. "They have to take some responsibility for this. Early voting is about a 30% increase in our local budget for elections. That's a heavy price for the county to pick up."