Parties fight for the voters without a party

Rob Schwarting Bob Bretchko Yates County Board of Elections YATES COUNTY -- The two major political parties in Yates County reached out to their base of registered voters with phone calls, letters, and postal cards in an attempt to get them to the polls and voting for the party’s candidates. Both parties also reported having attempted to enroll new voters and to solicit support from voters with no party affiliation. Across the state, there were reports that the support for Republican and Conservative candidates was up several percentage points. In Yates County, the increase over 2018 was 3.6%. The Democratic Party support however rose by the same amount. The gain was at the expense of the smaller third parties, most notably the Libertarian party (4%). Because of changes to the Election Law prior to 2018, it became harder for third parties to have a dedicated line on the ballot. This meant that third party candidates could only get write-in votes, and their performance at the polls has faded. While Democratic candidates prevailed in many races statewide and the party maintained its control of the Governor’s Office and the two branches of the state legislature, Republicans prevailed in Yates County at rates that mirror the almost two to one dominance in party enrollment. Turn out at the polls was 52% Republican, 25% Democrat, and 23% No Party Affiliation. Cross-party voting and winning support from the unaffiliated voters meant that some candidates outperformed their party as a whole in Yates County. Democrats DiNapoli (Comptroller) and Schumer (U.S. Senate) did better than their Governor. Judicial candidates Cook and Vazzana outperformed their opponents by a significant margin, mostly on a high return for the local favorite-son candidate, Cook. While Congressional candidate Tenney won her race, opponent Holden attracted a higher proportion of the unaffiliated or cross-party voters. The Coroner’s race went to VanDermark at a ratio consistent with party turnout. The remaining candidates faced no opposition. The proposition to issue a bond for DEC programs failed in Yates County by less than 1%, with 4.4% of the voters not making a choice. Democrats utilized absentee ballot voting at almost the same rate as the Republicans, 233 versus 279. Unaffiliated and third party voted 125 absentee ballots. Clearly, the Democratic Party strategy to promote absentee mail-in voting has their party participating 66% above norm. Early Voting was also encouraged by Democratic candidate postal cards and turn out by Democrats was larger than the Republican turnout (544 versus 475). At 125% above norm, Early Voting was well supported by Democrats. There was no clear winner in the fight for the unaffiliated voters. However, there is a strong call for absentee and early voting from the Democrats, both of which draw voters away from Election Day voting and reduces the potential for delays and lines at poll sites in large turnout elections. As was experienced early in the year, Early Voting had very low turnouts when there is only a Republican Primary or an election that does not generate strong competition between candidates.

Parties fight for the voters without a party

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