Your 2023 Information to Voting in Ithaca

Though Ithaca has no main statewide or nationwide elections, all 10 seats within the Frequent Council and the mayor’s workplace are up for election on Tuesday, Nov. 7, in addition to a seat on the State Supreme Courtroom. The voter registration deadline is Saturday, Oct. 28.

Registering to Vote

New York State residents with a legitimate driver’s license can register to vote on the New York State Division of Motor Autos web site.

On the web site, residents can click on on “Change My Deal with” and enter their Ithaca handle, if their main handle is outdoors of the town. This may change the handle on file on the DMV, however is not going to require acquiring a brand new license. As soon as the DMV points affirmation of the handle change, go to the voter registration webpage and fill out the data required. After receiving a affirmation e mail, residents might go to the voter lookup web site, enter “Tompkins” for county and private data to verify registration and polling location.

These and not using a New York driver’s license, or who don’t want to register to vote on-line, can register by printing and filling out the New York State Voter Registration kind, then mailing or bringing it to the Tompkins County Board of Elections at 128 E. Buffalo St. in Ithaca by Oct. 28.

Early Voting

New York gives early voting from Oct. 28 to Nov. 5. Anybody who’s registered as a Tompkins County voter and needs to vote early can achieve this at Ithaca City Corridor, 215 N. Tioga St. or at Crash Hearth Rescue, 72 Brown Rd. Examine Tompkins County’s early voting webpage for opening hours on every day of early voting, as they range.

Absentee Ballots

The deadline to request a mail absentee poll handed on Monday, Oct. 23, however the Tompkins County Absentee Poll Software kind could be printed out and mailed or dropped at the Board of Elections workplace by Nov. 7. The poll could be casted by mailing it to the Board of Elections workplace by Nov. 7, bringing it to an early voting location by Nov. 5 or bringing it to the Board of Elections workplace or polling web site by 9 p.m. on Nov. 7.

As soon as an absentee poll is requested, the Board of Elections will mechanically ship an absentee poll for each election till registration is canceled.

Voting on Election Day

A listing of all polling locations in Ithaca is accessible on the Tompkins County BOE lookup webpage. Customers can enter their handle and discover their polling location and an inventory of all incumbents. That is really useful, because the Metropolis of Ithaca has redistricted and the brand new wards will take impact with this yr’s election cycle.

Election Day is on Tuesday, Nov. 7. Polling locations will likely be open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. Voters who’re in line however haven’t voted by 9 p.m. will nonetheless be allowed to vote as long as they continue to be on line.

Anybody with fewer than 4 consecutive non-working hours wherein they will vote might take as much as two paid hours off of labor and as many unpaid hours as wanted to vote, as long as you give between two and 10 work days’ discover to their employer beneath Part 3-110 of the New York State Election Regulation.

Those that require help to vote or want instruction on find out how to function the voting machine might ask a ballot employee for steering.

Races

New York State has only one election this yr for State Supreme Courtroom justice, however the Metropolis of Ithaca is holding elections for all alderperson positions on Frequent Council and the mayor, whereas Tompkins County is holding an election for county courtroom choose.

Every of Ithaca’s 5 wards has a two-year and a four-year seat on the Frequent Council up for election.

Within the First Ward, comprising the neighborhoods of Southside, Northside, the West Finish and West Hill, Alderperson Cynthia Brock (D) — the lone alderperson to vote towards the memorandum of understanding between Cornell and the town — is operating for the four-year time period on the Ithacans for Progress ticket after dropping the Democratic main to Southside Neighborhood Middle Deputy Director Kayla Matos (D). Present Second Ward Alderperson Phoebe Brown (D) was redistricted to the First Ward and is operating for the two-year seat towards Republican Zachary Winn, an area conservative activist and one among two Republicans operating within the Metropolis of Ithaca.

Alderperson George McGonigal (D-First Ward) isn’t operating for re-election.

Each candidates within the Second Ward — comprising most of downtown Ithaca and Collegetown as much as North Quarry Avenue — are incumbents operating unopposed. Ducson Nguyen (D) is operating for the four-year time period, whereas Kris Haines-Sharp (D) — who’s at the moment filling the emptiness within the Fifth Ward left by Laura Lewis’s (D) accession to mayor — is operating for the two-year time period. If elected, Nguyen stated it will likely be his last time period.

The Third Ward — which accommodates South Hill and Belle Sherman on the East Hill — options newcomers throughout the board, as each incumbents Donna Fleming (D) — who served from 2012 to 2021 and was nominated to fill a emptiness left by Jeffrey Barken’s resignation — and Rob Gearhart (D) will not be operating. David Shapiro (D), director of Second Wind Cottages, is operating unopposed for the four-year seat, whereas Cornell Regulation College pupil and Ithaca native Pierre Saint-Perez grad (D) is operating for the two-year seat towards Tompkins Cortland Neighborhood Faculty Adjunct Professor Pat Sewell, who’s operating on the Neighborhood Get together ticket.

Two Cornell college students and incumbents are operating for the Fourth Ward’s seats, the district the place residents of Collegetown and West Campus reside. Jorge DeFendini ’22 (D), a former authorities and American research main at Cornell, is operating for the four-year time period, whereas Tiffany Kumar ’24 (D), a pupil within the College of Industrial and Labor Relations, is operating for the two-year time period.

The Fifth Ward additionally options two Cornell college students operating for workplace, with Michelle Music ’25 — who misplaced the Democratic main to former Cornell worker Margaret Fabrizio (D) — operating towards Fabrizio on the Working Households Get together line, whereas Clyde Lederman ’26 (D) is operating for the two-year seat towards PNC Financial institution IT Product Supervisor Jason Houghton, who’s operating on the Ithacans for Progress line. Residents of North Campus vote on this ward.

The mayoral candidates are additionally each Cornellians, with Robert Cantelmo grad (D-Fifth Ward), a Ph.D candidate in authorities and present Fifth Ward alderperson, operating towards Janis Kelly ’71 (R), the opposite Republican candidate in Ithaca.