North Elba residents Bill and Francine McIntyre are seen voting early at the Lake Placid Beach House Thursday. (Enterprise photo — Lauren Yates)

While many voters head to the polls today, a few hundred residents of Franklin and Essex counties have already voted, either by participating in early voting or by mailing in an absentee ballot.

This is the third year New York has had an early voting period. Election commissioners say the first year saw low numbers because it was just starting, the 2020 election was a high mark for early voting — it was a presidential election year, and voters may have been looking to avoid the crowds and the coronavirus.

Essex County saw a nearly 80% drop in early voting participation this year, compared to last year, according to data from the county Board of Elections. Franklin County saw a 80% decline in early voting this year, compared to last year. Both counties saw a significantly larger number of voters cast ballots early this year than in 2019, however.

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Essex County

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Early voting participation dropped in Essex County this year, after the 2020 presidential election brought in a record number of early votes across the county and the state.

Voter turnout typically rises during presidential election years, and last year’s hotly contested race between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump brought in more than 3 million absentee and in-person early votes across the state, according to the Associated Press.

Last year’s early voting numbers remain the record high for Essex County — 2,520 people traveled to the Essex County Public Safety building in Lewis last year to cast their ballots during the nine-day early voting period, according to the Essex County Board of Elections.

Essex County added a second early voting station in Lake Placid this year at the Lake Placid Beach House on Parkside Drive. The other early voting station was moved to North Hudson, in the southern end of the county. Over the nine-day early voting period, 512 Essex County voters cast their ballots early. That’s a nearly 80% decrease from last year’s in-person early vote total.

A total of 508 absentee ballots had been returned to the Board of Elections as of Monday, bringing the county’s total number of people who voted before Election Day to 1,020. There are 27,287 registered voters in Essex County, and 25,152 of those are considered “active” voters.

This year’s early voting period still attracted more voters to the polls than in 2019, the first year of early voting in the state. Less than 300 people cast early votes in 2019, about 42% fewer than this year’s count.

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Franklin County

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In Franklin County, 571 people voted early at the Board of Elections office in Malone ahead of today’s election. Franklin County Republican Election Commissioner Tracy Sparks said this is “way down” from last year, but higher than in 2019, the first year the state offered early voting.

In 2020, 2,853 people voted early in Malone. That’s 80% more than this year. Sparks pointed out that 2020 was a presidential election year. In 2019, 328 people voted early. That’s 42% less than this year and 88% less than in 2020.

Franklin County sent out 812 absentee ballots and on Monday afternoon had received 444 back.

The board will continue to collect absentee ballot returns by mail until seven days after the election. Sparks said they’ll likely all be opened on Nov. 15, after a 10-day cross-check period. She said if there’s a tight race which could be determined by the absentee ballots, the board will prioritize that race and count it first.

Sparks said the county has 28,090 registered voters. Of these, 26,000 are considered “active.”

But while there are a lot of people registered to vote, only a small percentage of these people show up on Election Day for local elections, she said.

“People don’t vote,” Sparks said. “Especially on off years. A lot of voters are every-four-year voters.”

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Election results

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Elections results will be posted late tonight online and published in Thursday’s paper.