Tuesday is Election Day. Across New York State, polls are open from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., and in Monroe County elections commissioners are anticipating that about 36 percent of registered voters will turn out.
Republican elections commissioner Peter Quinn says that he and his Democratic counterpart, Tom Ferrarese, come up with projections by looking at past election years with a similar ballot.
"It averages out a number of past and local elections, excluding the ones that have had some effect of outside that average," Ferrarese said.
Quinn says the low voter turnout during September's primary, (about 23 percent) doesn't always reflect what the turnout will be in the general election. He says the Rochester mayor's race could draw out more voters.
Ferrarese says voter turnout in the town races should help boost turnout in some places.
"We have had a fair amount of activity. People are familiar with the candidates. These are candidates that have represented them in the past or they've seen because of the jurisdictions because they've actually had the chance to meet and talk with the candidates so I think it's still driven by the issues and the candidates."
There are a number of other seats, including those for school board and City Council in Rochester, some county legislative races, judicial races, and a hotly contested sheriff’s race in Livingston County.
The polls are open from 6:00 a.m. until 9:00 p.m. WXXI will have extensive, live coverage starting at 9, with the help of the entire WXXI news team and our in-studio analysts including Nazareth College history and political science professor Timothy Kneeland, Chris Wilmot of the Smugtown Beacon online newspaper, and Ruth Scott, a former city councilwoman.
We will have coverage both on the air, at AM 1370 and online at wxxinews.org.
