Cattaraugus County Election Commissioners Kevin Burleson and Cortney Spittler announced the last day to register to be eligible to vote in the upcoming Presidential Primary Election is March 23, 2024.

Tuesday, April 2 is Presidential Primary Election Day in New York State.  Voter registration forms are available at the Board of Elections office at 207 Rock City St. Suite 100, Little Valley or at town and village clerks and county post offices. Forms are also available for download from the New York State Board of Elections web site or at www.cattco.org.  In addition, voters may also register online through the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles at https://voterreg.dmv.ny.gov/MotorVoter.

“To vote in the presidential primary, you must be registered by March 23. You also must be enrolled as a member of a party to vote in that party’s primary. To vote, you can either send in an early mail or absentee ballot (if you qualify), vote early in person, or vote in person on Primary Day. You can apply for an early mail or absentee ballot on the New York Elections website at least 10 days before the primary. Those ballots then need to be received by your county Board of Elections by April 9,” said Spittler.

Voters may notice that candidates who have dropped out are still on the ballot.

“When it comes to voting, you’ll either get the Democratic or Republican ballot depending on which party you’re enrolled in. Since it’s the Presidential Primary Election, you’ll only be voting for the candidate you want to be president, and if you have the Democratic ballot, you can vote for delegates to the Democratic National Convention. The delegates vary depending on which congressional district you’re in,” said Burleson.

In New York, four candidates were certified for the Republican Primary ballot: Donald Trump, Vivek Ramaswamy, Chris Christie, and Nikki Haley. On the Democratic side, three candidates qualified via petitions: Joe Biden, Dean Phillips, and Marianne Williamson.

As of March 13, Trump on the Republican side, and Biden and Williamson on the Democratic side, have not dropped out of the race. However, all nine candidates will still be listed on their respective ballots. According to the New York State Board of Elections, suspending a campaign does not automatically remove someone’s name from the ballot. A ballot-certified candidate can only remove their name if they submit a removal request by the party’s deadline.

The Republican party’s deadline was on February 6 and no one submitted the request by then, said the NYS Board of Elections. However, candidates have until March 26 to request that any votes cast for them be deemed void. Since Biden, Phillips, and Williamson were qualified via petitions, they will all appear on the Democratic primary ballot. The delegates on the Democratic ballot had until February 6 to decline the designation, but none of the candidates submitted a request by the deadline, said the NYS Board of Elections.

Sample Ballots and information on Early Voting locations and hours are available at www.CattCo.org for the April 2 Presidential Primary Election.

For more information, please contact the Board of Elections at 938-2400 through 2403