Knock knock!

The sound of someone knocking on our door was not the tiny hands of a costumed trick-or-treater (we don’t get those on our rural road anyway) but rather a volunteer asking if we were planning on voting in the General Election.

Don’t worry, members of our household (three-year-old daughter notwithstanding) do plan on voting.

Our poll location is the Town of Tusten Town Hall, but we have the opportunity to vote before November 3 if we so choose, as the door-knocker volunteer reminded us.

Indeed, Sullivan County—early voting is underway.

We’ve written about early voting in these pages before, but it bears repeating.

Here are the early voting sites, now open through Sunday, November 1:

• Sullivan County Government Center (first floor), 100 North St., Monticello, NY 12701

• Sullivan County Public Health, 50 Community Lane, Liberty, NY 12754

Why vote early? There are many reasons someone may choose to do so. One reason is because it’s entirely possible that something comes up on November 3 preventing you from getting to the ballot box (sick? Impromptu out-of-country business trip? Feeling lackadaisical?).

New York State instituted early voting in 2019, along with many other states, in an effort to expand voting access. And it appears more people are taking advantage.

As we await Sullivan County numbers it seems New York City residents were out this weekend getting to the polls: more than 165,000, according to data from the city’s Board of Elections.

The New York Times reports that about 265,000 people across the state voted on Saturday, double the number of people who showed up on the first day of early voting four years ago.

The race for governor is the largest line on this year’s general election, with incumbent Gov. Kathy Hochul facing off against Republican Bruce Blakeman. Both candidates made campaign stops across New York City over the weekend.

In the governor’s race four years ago Hochul defeated Republican challenger Lee Zeldin with only a six-percentage-point victory, the closest since 1994 when Republican George Pataki won in an upset victory over Democratic governor Mario Cuomo.

It’s not looking as optimistic for Blakeman, with recent public polling showing Hochul with a lead of 10 to 14 percentage points.

As election season continues, we hope there are no tricks awaiting us, and while we may not get a treat for voting, it is still a rewarding feeling to check off those boxes.