Crowds come out on Long Island for last day of early voting

Three other days Cassandra Woods had gone to her polling place in Brentwood to vote early, she said Sunday morning, and each time she had to leave: the weather was too cold, she wasn’t dressed warm enough, the lines were just too long.

"Fourth time’s a charm," said Woods, 48, one of about 300 would-be voters lined up in the cold at the Knights of Columbus on Sunday, New York State’s last day of 2020 early voting before Tuesday's traditional Election Day.

Seated in a lawn chair and nourished by water and snacks, Woods waited in a line that wrapped around Second Avenue and American Boulevard. Like fellow voters wearing scarves, hooded sweatshirts and thick coats, she was dressed for the fall chill.

"I came prepared this time," said Woods, who along with her sister and brother-in-law waited more than 2½ hours to "make our voices count."

Across the country, early voting has seen all-time high numbers turning out for the race between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden. As of Friday afternoon, about 86.8 million people had voted across the United States — 63% of the total who cast ballots in the entire 2016 race, The Associated Press reported.

The final count in Nassau is 223,280 early ballots — including 104,280 by Democrats and 64,433 by Republicans — cast at Nassau’s 15 early-voting sites, James Scheuerman, Democratic Nassau elections commissioner, said Sunday at 5:30 p.m. That’s in addition to about 130,000 absentee ballots, which are still coming in by mail, he said.

When voting began last weekend, wait times had been about 90 minutes, he said; by this weekend, waiting was cut to about 30 minutes, helped by more iPads and printers for ballots (which, unlike on Election Day, are produced on demand), more privacy booths and workers to expedite lines.

"We had a little bit of growing pains that first weekend," he said.

The county has 353 polling sites for traditional Election Day.

Anita Katz, Suffolk’s Democratic elections commissioner, texted at 5:52 p.m. that there had been 122,136 early votes. Those were in addition to 107,303 absentee ballots she said had been received as of Saturday. She said that a breakdown by party wasn't immediately available.

There are 12 early polling sites in Suffolk and 334 for Tuesday’s Election Day.

Last year, New York became the 39th state to allow early voting. Both Katz and Scheuerman said that, per state law, any voter who joined a line by 3 p.m. Sunday — the cutoff — was to be allowed to cast an early ballot.

In 2016, Trump won 48.6% of the overall votes on Long Island, including a majority in Suffolk, which Barack Obama won in 2008 and 2012. Trump won 52.5% of the vote in Suffolk, and 45.9% in Nassau in 2016.

At the Mid-Island Y Jewish Community Center in Plainview, Rachel Schwartz, 31, of Plainview, looked on as her daughters Dana, 5, and Sage, 2, played together, jumping in a nearby puddle.

"Them," Schwartz said. "They’re why I’m voting … to teach them the importance of voting and for their future."

Schwartz said she’s voting for Biden. Why?

"Oh, that list is too long," she said with a laugh, adding: "But in short, I don’t agree with anything Trump stands for."

Anthony J. Dinome, 84, a former Navy man and university professor, said he didn’t mind waiting in the rain to fulfill his "duty as an American."

"I, myself, I’m a Trumper," he said. Trump, he said, "is a man who does what he says."

Polling sites in Nassau and Suffolk stayed open past 3 p.m. for people who were already in line. Around 3:30 p.m., a woman in yoga pants and running shoes darted from her car toward the Plainview building and tugged at the locked door. She said she'd been there earlier but had left because the line was too long. She could not get in.

With Rachelle Blidner