Looking north with the election operations building on the left and the new parking garage in the background.
The hand of Monroe County clerk Nicole Browne, after she voted. She’s running unopposed for re-election.
The trademark blue former NAPA building at 3rd and Walnut streets, just south of the new parking garage and west of the downtown transit center, is the new home to Monroe County’s voting operations.
Tuesday was the first day of in-person early voting for the May 3 primary elections.
At 8 o’clock sharp, Monroe County clerk Nicole Browne emerged from the front door to perform the ritual that marked the start of the voting day.
Browne raised her voice to the overcast sky: “Hear ye, hear ye, the polls are now open!”
In the first half hour of voting, only a handful of voters cast a ballot. By then, light rain was falling on the few candidates and volunteers who had come to canvas the early voters.
By around 4 p.m., the count of early voters had reached just 58. For the general election in 2020, Monroe County averaged more than 1,000 early in-person voters a day. It’s not surprising that interest in the primary elections, between presidential election years, is comparatively lower.
Browne told The B Square earlier in the morning that she’d heard from other county clerks in the state that the number of requested absentee ballots was down compared to 2020. Continue reading “Early in-person voting kicks off for Monroe County” →