ALBANY — Early voting is set to happen for the first time in New York, and advocates hope the benefits of expanded ballot box access will outweigh the cost and headaches of keeping the polls open for more than a single day.

Starting Saturday, voters in this autumn’s election can cast ballots at select polling locations through Nov. 3 thanks to a new law passed this year. The election then takes a day off before voters can return for a final, full day of balloting on Election Day, Nov. 5.

New York is late to adopt an early voting system; 38 other states already do it in some form. It is rolling out its new system in a relatively quiet election year, ahead of the 2020 presidential contest. Voters this year are mostly picking candidates for county positions, local judges, school boards and municipal government.

Supporters and critics alike hope any hiccups — whether confusion, lack of voter awareness or malfunctioning technology — will be smoothed out by next year, when turnout is expected to soar.

“It looks like it’s going as smoothly as it possibly can,” said Mary Lou Monahan, an elections commissioner in Chenango County, a rural county with just 28,000 active voters in central New York. “There were many sweeping election law changes this year, and this was a big one. This is new territory for everyone.”

Challenges in implementing the system include finding spaces that can accommodate voting booths for several days, finding volunteers who can staff those stations day after day, and keeping the equipment powered up and running properly for the extended period.

There have been complaints from some school officials about having to give up space in gymnasiums and cafeterias for voting machines for a whole school week, rather than one day. Parents have also expressed worry in some areas about adult voters walking through schools to access polling booths.

Local elections officials will also be working for the first time with electronic tablets that poll workers use to verify voter eligibility, rather than the often hefty paper lists used in the past.

Some supporters, including Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo, have said extending the number of days the polls are open could reverse New York’s status as one of the bottom 10 states for voter turnout, though students of early voting systems say that isn’t guaranteed.

“There’s no one silver bullet that increases turnout,” said Susan Lerner of the advocacy group Common Cause. “Our experience in other states is that early voting by itself isn’t a reliable factor to increase voting. It does in some places; it doesn’t in others.”

Turnout is boosted more, she said, in states that allow people to register to vote on the day they cast their ballot. Most New Yorkers can only vote in this election if they registered by Oct. 11. Changing that rule would require a constitutional amendment.

Lawmakers this year considered proposed state constitutional amendments that, if approved by voters, would allow for registration on election day and allow anyone to request an absentee ballot.

New York has long allowed absentee balloting, which currently allows people to mail in a ballot if they are unable to vote in person on Election Day for a limited list of reasons, such as chronic illness or travel plans.

Some supporters had hoped New York’s early voting law would be even broader: Its nine day period is below the average 19 days allowed in other states, and the state isn’t running early voting by mail like Oregon, Washington and Colorado.

Still, New York is joining a small handful of states that allow early voting on Sundays.

More than 700 county office positions are on the ballot this year. In New York City, people are also voting on several proposed changes to the city charter, including one that would institute ranked choice voting in some primary contests. Ranked choice is a system where voters rank all the candidates on the ballot in order of preference, rather than pick just one candidate.

The state is helping local elections board defray some costs of keeping polling locations open for several days. Local governments are getting $10 million plus another $14.7 million for capital expenses such as the electronic polling books.

“It’s not covering the entire cost for the counties, but it has definitely helped,” Lerner said.

Monahan, the elections commissioner in Chenango County, guessed that around 20% and 25% of voters will take advantage of early voting but wasn’t sure if those people would be new voters or people who would have voted anyway on Election Day.

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Early voting schedule

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Essex County Public Safety Building, 702 Stowersville Road, Lewis

• Saturday, Oct. 26: 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

• Sunday, Oct. 27: 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

• Monday, Oct. 28: 12 to 8 p.m.

• Tuesday, Oct. 29: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

• Wednesday, Oct. 30: noon to 8 p.m.

• Thursday, Oct. 31: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

• Friday, Nov. 1: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

• Saturday, Nov. 2: 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

• Sunday, Nov. 3: 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

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Franklin County Courthouse, 355 West Main St., Suite 161 (Board of Elections), Malone

• Saturday, Oct. 26: 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

• Sunday, Oct. 27: 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

• Monday, Oct. 28: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

• Tuesday, Oct. 29: noon to 8 p.m.

• Wednesday, Oct. 30: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

• Thursday, Oct. 31: noon to 8 p.m.

• Friday, Nov. 1: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

• Saturday, Nov. 2: 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

• Sunday, Nov. 3: 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.