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So, where do you go on Tuesday — Election Day —to cast that ballot? Well, Onondaga County has 203 polling places. And how do you find out which one is yours? Democracywise’s Racquel Asa gives us a how to lesson on finding your polling place.]
It’s as easy as a phone call or a session at the computer. To find your polling place, you can either log-on to the Internet or pick up the phone.
Dial 435-8683 — and a friendly pre-recorded voice gives you directions on how to find your polling place.
The voice says:
“You have reached the Onondaga County Board of Elections, if you need to know if you’re registered to vote or if you want to know your polling place.” (phone recording at Onondaga County Board of Elections)
If you stay on the phone through the message, then a real person answers with a greeting on how to help you.
In the Board of Elections office, Democratic Commissioner Edward Ryan hears the phone ring more often as Election Day draws closer.
“We get an awful lot of calls. We get thousands of calls. We’ve always had the people call every year asking ‘Where do I vote?’ ” (Ryan, Democratic election commissioner)
But if you don’t want to hang on the phone, you can use a computer to find your polling place. And remember — if you don’t have a computer, you can use special ones open to the public at area libraries.
Okay, here we are at the keyboard. First, get the elections board Web site by typing the address www.ongov.net/board_of_elections.
On the homepage , look at the rail on the left side of the screen. You’ll see a a link labeled “Polling Places.” Click there. http://www.ongov.net/Board_of_Elections/pollingplaces.html
At the center of the next Web page, you’ll see “Polling Place Look-up.” Click there. http://ntsdata.dnsalias.com/onondagaboe/
That will direct you to another Web page. Next you’ll see boxes to fill out with the following information:
- Your zip code
- Your street number
- Your street name and apartment number
- Your date of birth.
Once you’ve filled out the information, click “submit.”
The results on the next Web page will list your polling place — and also all the voting districts you’re in. Such as your Congressional District. And your New York state Assembly District and you state Senate District.
It will also tell you if you’re a registered voter. If you are, it will show you a sample ballot.
A big tip for Election Day:
If you’ve voted in past elections, don’t assume you’ll be going to the same place this year. In fact, some old polling places will be an empty surprise to unsuspecting voters.
“There will be nothing there and it will dawn on them and then they’ll call us.” (Ryan, Democratic election commissioner)
Commissioner Ryan says 25 of 203 polling locations changed for this election. They weren’t in compliance with the Help America Vote Act — or HAVA. HAVA is a federal law enacted after the 2000 election and creates federal standards for voting systems.
“Because of the HAVA act, all of these polling places have to be handicap accessible and some that we had were not. So we changed them so they are.” ( Ryan, Democratic election commissioner)
Polling places are open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. The general election is this Tuesday, November 4th.
For Democracywise, I’m Racquel Asa.
(Racquel Asa is a graduate student in broadcast journalism)
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