LAKE PLACID — The town of North Elba will host Essex County’s lone early voting station for the foreseeable future.

A new state law signed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo last month requires each county to have at least one early voting place located within its municipality with the highest population. For Essex County, that municipality is the town of North Elba — and because this rural county has only one early voting station, that means voters from all across the county — from Ticonderoga to Minerva to Keeseville — will need to travel to North Elba if they want to vote early in person.

North Elba includes the village of Lake Placid, part of the village of Saranac Lake and the hamlet of Ray Brook. Even though it is expected to see the sharpest population loss of any municipality in Essex County in the 2020 census, it is still by far the county’s most populous town, with 8,957 residents as of the 2010 census. That’s nearly a quarter of all county residents. The town of Ticonderoga has the second-highest population, with 5,042 residents as of the 2010 census.

The exact new location of the county’s early voting station hasn’t been formalized yet, according to county Democratic Election Commissioner Sue Montgomery Corey. The location will be announced after an agreement is finalized with either the town of North Elba or the village of Lake Placid, depending on where it is.

When searching for a location for an early voting site, the Board of Elections has to consider a few factors. Primarily, the location has to be accessible and secure.

“The machine has to be locked up over nine days in a secure place,” Montgomery Corey said. “The place we use has to be a place where that’s a possibility. It also has to be large enough to accommodate poll workers and voters, and should have good parking.”

As locals know, parking in Lake Placid can sometimes be a challenge, particularly in the summertime when primaries are usually held. The North Elba Town Hall on Main Street, home of the town and Lake Placid village government, has little off-street parking, but there are several locations for the county Board of Elections to choose from, such as the nearby village Beach House on Parkside Drive, which does have some off-street parking.

The county’s early voting station was located at the public safety building in Lewis, a few miles outside of the county seat, Elizabethtown. Voters from the counties’ two most populous towns both had to drive a little under an hour one way to get there.

Altogether, 2,519 people traveled to Lewis to cast their ballots during the nine-day early voting period last year. Presidential election years almost always draw more voters than local election years. In 2019, the first year early voting was available in New York state, just 294 Essex County residents voted early in person.

As of this past November, there were 25,837 active registered voters in Essex County, plus 1,812 registered voters considered inactive.