First-time voters in the state of New York will need identification next Tuesday. Everyone else can just show up.
If you have voted in the past, you do not have to bring any identification, both state and local Board of Election officials say. But that doesn’t apply to new voters.
“If you’re a first-time voter, you need a picture I.D.,” said Ed Ryan, one of two Onondaga County election commissioners, “because we don’t know who’s showing up.”
Another caveat would be if your current address does not match the one on your registration form. Then you would also need some form of identification, said Pat Campion, public information officer for the New York State Board of Election.
The election will be Nov. 4.
For veterans of the ballot box, said state elections board spokesperson Campio, the voting process works like this:
Once someone registers, the person’s name and signature are logged into a county polling book. The books are kept at the polling stations. “They ask you where you live. They pull it up and your name is there with a signature over it,” Campion said. “That’s the procedure.”
As long as the signatures match, the vote is valid.
Voters with a new address that doesn’t match the one on their registration should bring I.D.
“If you’re thinking there’s a chance, like ‘I moved and I didn’t get my voter registration card,’ which is sent out by the counties, then you should bring an I.D.,” Campion said. “A driver’s license, a student I.D., a passport, any kind of I.D. with your signature would cover you.”
For new voters, the process is different. Identification is required as a safeguard, Campion said.
The county has about 285,000 active voters, said Ryan, the Onondaga Democratic commissioner. And he estimated 23,000 to 24,000 new voters in the county have registered since last October.
To help with all those new voters, Ryan said, the county will place extra inspectors at polling stations. The inspectors will help new voters figure out what to do and try to prevent delays.
Even so, err on the side of caution. It might also be a smart idea to bring some food. Or a book to kill the time. Lines at polling stations are expected to be long.
The temperature is expected to be about 61 degrees during the day and drop to about 41 degrees at night, according to forecasting Website www.weather.com.
But considering the Syracuse climate, it wouldn’t hurt to hedge your bet.
Bring a jacket. Just in case.
(Andy McCullough is a senior newspaper journalism major. Democracywise reporter Susanna McElligott contributed to this report.)
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