Early voting turnout strong in Erie County, running 50% ahead of the last governor's race

Early voting is underway across New York and voters in Erie County are heading to the polls in strong numbers.

Voters lined up Monday afternoon at the North Buffalo Community Center to cast their ballots on the third day of early voting.

Through the first two days, Erie County reported an adjusted total of 23,665 ballots cast, and election officials said turnout remained strong Monday.

Ralph Mohr, Republican commissioner of the Erie County Board of Elections, said early voting turnout is running well ahead of the last gubernatorial election.

"We've compared this year to the last gubernatorial election we had, and we're running about 50% higher than the turnout that we've had," Mohr said.

Mohr believes some of that interest may be driven by the number of races on the ballot this year, with voters considering candidates for offices at the local, county, state, and federal levels.

"I think the national view with the federal offices on the ballot is a big concern, and it has all the positions, it has state positions, county and federal," Mohr said.

Voters who spoke with 7 News said there is plenty at stake in this election, and they want to have their say.

"They want to be heard, and they're voting, and this is the channel we have to be able to express ourselves and what we feel about policies, whether they are local, county, national, state, they're all on the ballot," Buffalo voter Peter Flynn said.

Another Buffalo voter, Tom Giambrone, said he believes concerns about what's happening at different levels of government are motivating people to vote.

"I think people are real concerned in terms of what's going on, and definitely want their voice heard," Giambrone said.

Along with choosing candidates, voters in the City of Buffalo are also weighing in on 11 proposed changes to the city charter. That required a two-sided ballot, which caused some issues when early voting began Saturday.

Mohr said some printers were printing the back side of the ballot upside down. Because the voting equipment was programmed to recognize a specific ballot orientation, tabulators at polling locations were unable to count those ballots.

"This is the first time that we've used the system. They have a two-sided ballot, and some of the printers were printing the backside of the ballot upside down," Mohr said. "Our equipment of course is programmed to recognize the ballot, and when it didn't recognize the upside down ballot, the tabulators out in the field were not able to count the ballots."

WATCH: Early voting turnout strong in Erie County, running 50% ahead of the last governor's race

Mohr said the problem affected a few hundred ballots, mostly in the City of Buffalo, and was corrected within about an hour and a half Saturday.

He stressed that the affected ballots remain valid. They were placed in the emergency bins of the tabulators, collected and returned to the Board of Elections.

"They were all collected, brought back to the Board of Elections, and they're going to be counted in the final count when we report on Election Day," Mohr said.

Mohr said there have been no additional problems since the issue was corrected.

"Since that was corrected, we haven't had any problems or issues whatsoever, so it's been very good," he said.

Early voting continues through Sunday, Nov. 1.

Early voting for the Nov. 3 general election is available from noon to 9 p.m. through Friday, and from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

For early voting poll site locations, visit elections.erie.gov or call 716-858-8891.