Like it or not, Election Day is here once again. The Ithaca Voice has a variety of ways for you to follow along with what’s happening all day and into the night while we wait for the results (which, remember, could take a while to receive). 

Here’s our Election 2020 Hub, where you can find your polling place in the City of Ithaca, the Town of Ithaca and the rest of Tompkins County, plus the below stories and more from Election Day 2020 as it happens. We will also be updating this page throughout the day and all of our stories will be gathered here.

UPDATE, 11:20 A.M.— Current results as of 11:20 a.m., Nov. 4.

UPDATE, 1:00 A.M.— Current results as of 1:00 a.m., Nov. 4.

UPDATE, 12:00 A.M.— Initial 2020 Election Results coming from Tompkins BOE

UPDATE, 10:00 P.M. –– Election Day 2020 has officially come to a close in New York State and poll workers around the Ithaca area said that turnout was steady as expected, even considering the several options provided to voters to avoid any crowds at the poll locations.

UPDATE, 9:00 P.M. –– As voting sites across the state close for the day, the Ithaca Voice looks at the past day of voting in the heart of downtown Ithaca. While voting sites throughout Tompkins County saw voters flock to cast their ballots Tuesday, polling places in the city had lines that moved slow and steady throughout the day.polling places had lines that moved slow and steady throughout the day.

UPDATE, 5:10 P.M. –– With the introduction of early voting and a flood of absentee ballots in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, voter turnout on Election Day itself has been surprisingly high.

UPDATE, 2:27 P.M. –– Tompkins County voters have begun showing up en masse for Election Day, surprising some poll workers with the sheer volume with which they’ve turned out to vote in the 2020 General Election.

Coverage of the races that will appear on your ballot today

U.S. House of Representatives, New York 23rd Congressional District

New York State Assembly, 125th Assembly District

New York State Senate, 58th Senate District

City of Ithaca Court Judge

New York State Supreme Court, 6th Judicial District

Town of Enfield Propositions to convert elected positions to appointments

Ballot Status

Want to find out if your mail-in ballot has been counted? Here’s how

When will ballots actually be counted?

The answer to this has a few different layers, depending on how you voted. Someone who voted during the early voting period will likely see their ballot counted right as the polls close at 9 p.m. on Election Day. New York State law actually allows counties to begin counting early voting ballots an hour before that, at 8 p.m., so that they will likely be included with the earliest released results. Early voting has been very popular so far: during the early voting period for this election, 13,725 people already voted, according to the last update from Board of Elections Democratic Commissioner Steve DeWitt.

However, mail-in and absentee ballots could take much longer to count. State law requires board of election officials to wait several days before counting absentee ballots that have been submitted. For some comparison, the final results for the Democratic primaries in Tompkins County, officially held on June 23, weren’t released until July 6. 

Since the June primaries were the only other examples we have of an election held during a pandemic, it could inform at least some of what to expect in terms of how many votes will be cast in-person versus via absentee or mail-in (though turnout is sure to be far higher for a general, presidential election). During that election, about twice as many people voted absentee or mail-in versus in-person on Election Day—in the 125th State Assembly District primary, for example, 9,128 votes were cast via mail-in or absentee, while 4,749 were cast in-person. 

This is an updating page. More will be added from the field and as turnout numbers become clear.