Onondaga County voters face inactive status and polling place confusion on Primary Day

Voters who showed up at Onondaga County polling places on Primary Day found inactive registrations and changed voting sites waiting for them instead of a routine ballot. Magda Bayoumi, who said she had voted at Nottingham High School for 31 years, learned her registration had been marked inactive when she arrived to cast her ballot and had to fill out an affidavit ballot. County election workers said those ballots still counted, and most voters eventually made it through the process without major trouble.

Election Commissioner Kevin Ryan said most inactive-status cases came from address changes and from confirmation mail that went out but was never returned. Under New York Election Law, a voter is placed in inactive status when a confirmation notice is sent, and state guidance says address changes must be received at least 15 days before a primary, general or special election to be processed in time. Ryan also warned that if a voter gets one of those notices by mistake and ignores it, the record can stay inactive until the board is told otherwise.

The other problem was site confusion. Democratic Commissioner Dustin Czarny said the county had to move a polling place after the Aloft Hotel could no longer host voting because a convention had already been booked there. Onondaga County updated its own website, but a snafu with the upload to the state website left some voters looking at outdated polling-place information. The county’s June 23 polling-place list showed new voting locations in red and temporary changes in blue.

County polling-place guidance says those changes can happen for reasons including construction, a building sale, lease nonrenewal, ADA compliance problems, voter complaints and lack of parking. That makes the primary’s shifting map a recurring administrative issue, not a one-off glitch. Bayoumi’s experience at Nottingham High School showed how long-time voters can be caught by it when a file changes quietly and a move or mailing notice never reaches them in time.

State election materials say affidavit ballots are used when a voter is not eligible to vote on the machine, and New York law requires voters who cast one to receive written information on how to check later whether the ballot was counted. For Onondaga County, the immediate fix is straightforward: check registration and polling place information before the next election, especially after an address change or a confirmation notice. The deeper problem is whether the county can keep registration maintenance, mail handling and site changes from turning eligible voters away at the door.