The following was written by Tompkins County Communications Director Dominick Recckio on-site at the Board of Elections on General Election Day, November 5 2024. (Download a PDF with photographs)
By November 5 more than 20,000 ballots had already been cast in Tompkins County through early voting and absentee ballots. More than 60,000 people are registered to vote as of election day, a Tompkins County record.
2024 General Election Day at the Board of Elections in Tompkins County New York
4:00am – Tompkins County Board of Elections staff arrive at their offices and begin the day. The central office is set up and staff prepare for poll workers to arrive at 34 sites across Tompkins County.
5:00am – 225 poll workers arrive at their posts for the day. Churches, firehalls, community centers; locations urban and rural across Tompkins County that serve as polling locations. There are poll workers from both major parties represented at every polling site.
6:00am – Polls open.
6:20am – A steady stream of calls from poll site managers are addressed by staff at the Board of Elections. Routine calls include machine troubleshooting and ballot printing questions. If you’ve ever had a printer, you know the challenges. Five Board of Elections technicians are already in the field, dispatched by a central technician to address any last-minute machine issues and support poll workers.
A call came into the central technician stating that the ballot printer at the Longview site was malfunctioning, technician staff walked the poll worker through each step of resetting the election machinery.
A second printer issue arose in the Dryden area, and elections staff in the central office began printing emergency secondary ballots to securely deliver in case the printer can’t get stood up. The ballots are placed in a secure bag labeled “Emergency” with the location and delivered to the site.
7:00am – Routine troubleshooting calls continue to come in, like one voter with a new address in Tompkins County. They are one of many voters who will vote by affidavit attesting to a recent change of information.
Short lines are being reported at several locations, poll workers check in with the central office for advice and instructions on strategies to keep things efficient.
8:00am – By this time support staff from Tompkins County Information Technology Services, Administration, and Department of Emergency Response are at their stations and tuned into security and State monitoring systems. Election turnout is being monitored by the Board of Elections.
A caller reports an outdated website page showing up on a google search listing a polling site that is no longer used. Tompkins County staff immediately contact the website vendor and have the old page file removed.
9:00am - A longer-than-usual line at the polling site in the Village of Groton began to form, as the ballot printer had run out of paper. While ballots were in the printer queue, more voters were being checked in, leading to a backup before paper could be inserted and ballots printed. Poll workers troubleshot the issue with Board of Elections staff and resolved the issue. A machine technician arrived for further troubleshooting and to monitor the situation. Communications staff alerted local Legislators to the activity in case they are contacted by constituents.
10:00am – 12:00pm: As poll sites see the first wave of voters wane, calls and activity at the Board of Elections slow. Because of the high turnout for this election, affidavit ballots continue to be requested by poll sites and used throughout the County. People who have registered to vote Online and are missing a signature in the local files, or those who have a change of address, a name change, or are residents of a different County looking to vote at a poll site are all required to use an affidavit ballot. Extra affidavit envelopes are delivered to several polling locations as requested by site managers. This is normal and Board of Elections staff attribute the increase to a high voter turnout.
11:35am: 10,892 individuals have voted so far today.
12:30pm – A call was received by the Tompkins County 911 Center regarding a vehicle crashing into a poll site at the Linderman Creek Apartments in the Town of Ithaca.
12:30pm -1:30pm - Board of Elections staff are notified of the crash and a commissioner heads to the scene. Tompkins County Sheriff’s Deputies alert emergency response and communications staff that no injuries were sustained on site and the vehicle accident was not of a malicious nature. Board of Elections staff begin securely moving elections equipment to a backup site within the same apartment complex.
1:33pm – A press release is issued acknowledging the accident and alerting the public to the polling site change. The release clarifies that there were no injuries or malicious intent associated with the crash.
1:57pm – The backup site at Linderman Creek Apartments is fully operational and accepting voters. Board of Elections staff uploaded the address of the new location to the New York State Board of Elections, voters looking online for polling site location information will find the accurate new address.
2:00pm – Communications staff responds to several media inquiries regarding the crash and poll site move. Board of Elections staff field public inquiries and clarify information over the phone to several callers.
2:16pm – Administration staff communicate with poll workers stationed at the Linderman Creek site acknowledging the activity and offering Employee Assistance Program support.
2:53pm – The ballot scanner on a voting machine at a polling site in Dryden malfunctioned. Poll site staff immediately began using a secure emergency ballot bag to accept ballots. Technician staff began preparing a backup machine to bring to the site. Paper ballots cast into the bag are sealed until they are scanned by a bipartisan team at the poll site. The votes previously tallied through the machine are saved on the machine and in recoverable USB files. They will be accepted by the Board of Elections along with the rest of the results.
3:05pm - 15,742 voters have now cast their ballot on election day.
3:00pm – 5:00pm – Board of Elections staff continue operations as usual.
4:45pm – 18,312 election day votes have been cast.
4:54pm – The backup polling machine arrived at the Dryden location. Staff had previously tested every machine, including those deployed into the field and backup machines in case of emergency.
5:08pm – The backup machine is up and running at the Dryden poll site.
5:34pm – 20,060 votes have been cast.
5:39pm – Board of Elections staff troubleshoot with poll sites, instructing at least one site to pause check ins while replacing rolls of ticket paper needed to issue voters their ballots. Extra ballot and ticket paper was sent out to all sites making requests.
5:58pm – Votes cast on the machine that had malfunctioned at a Dryden poll site arrive at the Board of Elections. They tally was securely uploaded to a backup machine at the Board of Elections to “close out” that machine and prepare to upload those votes to the central Clear Cast system when polls close.
A chain of custody document carried by a Board of Elections staff member arrived with the votes from the Dryden machine. The document is kept by the Board of Elections. A commissioner oversaw the delivery of the votes.
6:05pm – A United States Postal Service official and mail carrier delivered the last batch of mail-in absentee ballots to be counted on election day. Absentees needed to be postmarked by today. Additional mail-in votes received after November 5 (postmarked by that date) will be added to the tally by the time it is certified.
6:13pm – The backup machine at the Board of Elections receiving the Dryden vote was sealed until 9pm when its tally will be transferred to a central system.
6:25pm – Staff receive reports from poll workers that the Cornell University poll site at Robert Purcell Community Center has a line forming. Staff discuss the increase in student voter turnout this year.
6:35pm – Staff check in with the Tompkins County Sheriff’s Office to confirm plans to escort ballots to the Board of Elections and be present at Bard of Elections sites after ballots are in.
6:50pm – 22,498 votes have been cast, 1,456 are affidavit ballots. Affidavit ballots need to be researched by staff in the coming days to determine eligibility.
7:05pm – Two calls come in from the Robert Purcell Community Center polling site about lines being long. Staff internally discuss that lines may be long because many voters require affidavit ballots if they are registered elsewhere in New York State but vote in Tompkins County. Staff suggest poll workers check in with those in line to get affidavit paperwork started.
7:08pm – After another call about the Robert Purcell location lines staff check the dashboard and see that around 1,000 people have voted at the location and nearly 300 affidavit ballots have been submitted.
7:45pm - Staff discuss reassigning a worker from another location to the Robert Purcell Community Center to aid those already on site. A poll worker is identified and heads to the site.
8:00pm-9:00pm – Staff troubleshoot with poll workers around any technical issues, begin preparation for closing the polls.
Poll workers in Groton receive instructions on securely emptying ballots from a machine that has filled up. This is done in a bipartisan manner, and the ballots are sealed into a ballot bag to be returned to the Board of Elections.
9:00pm – Polls are closed. Any eligible voters still waiting in line at a poll site can still cast a ballot and are advised on-site. Three Tompkins County Sheriff’s Deputies arrive at Board of Elections facilities to secure and monitor the return of election materials from polling places. Deputies will stay on duty until all election materials are secure for the night.
9:02pm - 23,732 individuals have voted on election day, not including affidavit ballots.
9:04pm – Partial Dryden area results from the backup machine at the Board of Elections are taken from the machine and added to the central Clear Cast system. Staff are awaiting the results from each of the 34 polling sites to arrive at the central Board of Elections facility.
The central Clear Cast system is a secure system provided by Clear Ballot (approved NYS vendor) and compiles all election results as their input from each site, including mail-in absentee and early votes. These systems take imported election data and export result data, they are not connected to the internet per New York State law.
9:12pm – Early voting and mail-in absentee totals are unsealed by a bipartisan group of Board of Elections staff. The totals are entered into the central Clear Cast system. Images of every ballot cast are uploaded as part of entering the results, this takes several minutes.
9:20pm - After each poll site is fully closed, results from the 34 polling sites in sealed bags are delivered periodically with chain of custody documentation accepted by the Board of Elections.
9:26pm – A final report came in from the Robert Purcell Community Center poll workers stating that there are still people in line, they have been notified that they are still allowed to cast their ballot.
The previous record number of affidavit ballots in an election was around 800. This year it is reported at over 1,600 at 9:27pm.
9:33pm - Board of Elections staff export the first batch of unofficial results to be uploaded to a secure New York State system and published on the Tompkins County website. The first batch totals 21,754 votes, from early voting, mail-in absentee votes, and the Dryden votes from the machine that malfunctioned.
9:35pm – Bags from poll sites are unsealed one by one and entered into the Clear Cast system, observed by a bipartisan group of Board of Elections staff.
9:45pm – A second batch of unofficial results are uploaded to the State and County website.
10:08pm – A third batch of unofficial results are uploaded to the State and County website, the total is now 35,115 votes.
10:25pm - A fourth batch of unofficial results are uploaded to the State and County website, the total is now 42,165 votes.
10:31pm – All polling site results have been securely delivered to the Board of Elections. Cast ballots, affidavit ballots, and polling site materials continue to arrive from polling sites.
10:36pm – All polling site results were entered into the Clear Cast system.
1,624 affidavit results are yet to be counted and will be reported by the time the Board of Elections certifies results.
10:38pm – All polling site results were included in a fifth batch of unofficial results are uploaded to the State and County website, the total is now 44,401.
10:52pm – Staff continue to accept ballot bags and materials from polling sites.
11:18pm – A poll site manager from the Linderman Creek polling site delivered the ballot bags and materials from the polling site. The second-to-last delivery of the evening. They described the scene at the initial site during the vehicle crash, and how staff and first responders managed the situation and moved smoothly to a new site.
11:26pm - The final ballot bags and materials are returned. Staff begin packing up for the night.
11:30pm – Ballot bags and materials are safely and securely transported by staff to Board of Elections facilities.
12:00am – Staff complete delivery of materials and head home.
The day was considered by all to be a success at the Tompkins County Board of Elections with lessons learned for future elections.