Westchester Board of Elections prepares for this weekend's start to early voting
Westchester has 25 designated in-person early voting poll sites across the county.
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There's a bustle of energy at the Westchester County Board of Elections two weeks before Election Day and just days before the start of in-person early voting this weekend.
All day Tuesday, people were going in and out of the White Plains headquarters to register, request an absentee ballot or drop off their mail-in votes in person.
Beyond those requests, county elections staff is prepping the 25 in-person early voting poll sites that will open up starting Saturday morning.
Democratic County Elections Commissioner Tajian Nelson said the board distributed more than 55,000 mail-in and absentee ballots this year and more than 17,000 have already been returned.
Dobbs Ferry's Christine Scott was one of them.
"It's very important that all voices be heard and it's important that everyone votes and I know that my ancestors fought very hard for me to have this ability," Scott said.
Briarcliff's Joanne Adams also stopped by the board Tuesday.
"I wanted my daughter to get her ballots, and my son also has an absentee ballot and he already did it so we're a big voter family," she said.
Roughly 17 million early votes have been cast nationwide according to several reports. Multiple states broke turnout records when early voting began.
Westchester is expecting large numbers, too.
"We believe it will be a higher turnout than normal," Nelson said.
In preparation, elections officials are adding more check-in staff and voting booths to each poll site and have trained more than 4,000 people as election inspectors.
"To accommodate the higher turnout, to speed up everyone getting in and out and turning out your vote as soon as possible," Nelson said.
Elections officials are also working alongside local, county and state police who are monitoring for any safety threats now, during early voting and on election day.
