The constituents of Tompkins County took to the polls and elected new representatives on Tuesday. But on one of the hottest days of this year, the voter turnout for 2025 sits at third out of the last five years according to the Tompkins County Board of Elections website.
Candidates Iris Packman and Irene Weiser won their respective Democratic primaries for the Tompkins County Legislature, while Daniel Nolan won the special election to finish out former District 3 legislator Susan Currie’s term uncontested. For the City of Ithaca’s Common Council, Jorge DeFendini and Pat Sewell won the Democratic primaries for the First and Third Wards, respectively.
In the Fifth Ward, G.P. Zurenda currently leads by the slimmest margin out of all eight races, with just six votes separating he and Hannah Shvets, with mail-in and affidavit ballots still to be counted.
Mark Pruce and Zachary Larkins won their Democratic primaries for Danby Town Council, edging out third-place finisher James Tyler Stein by just 33 votes. In Newfield, Christine M. Seamo and Michael T. Corbett won the Republican primary election for spots on town council, with 49 and 40 votes each.
As it stands, 21 out of 22 precincts have been reported in the Board of Elections results breakdown with 3,121 total ballots cast. The 3,121 voters represent just 5.21 percent of the total registered active voters in Tompkins county.
The low turnout may be attributed to a combination of factors, including several candidates running unopposed and extreme heat conditions. Turnout dropped by 18,334 votes compared to the 7,489 ballots cast in 2022. However, it did increase by 2,049 votes compared to last year’s local races. The turnout however increased just slightly past 2021’s recorded number of 2,985.
While the reasoning behind the drop in turnout between 2023-2025 cannot be pinpointed to one exact cause, the 21,455 who voted in the 2022 midterm election were likely motivated by other New York State elections, such as the election of former governor Andrew Cuomo and Senator Chuck Schumer.
Full results from Tuesday’s primaries are available on the Tompkins County Board of Elections website.
Zeinab Faraj is a reporter from The Cornell Daily Sun working on The Sun's summer fellowship at The Ithaca Voice. This piece was originally published in the Ithaca Voice.
Zeinab Faraj is the assistant sports editor on the 143rd editorial board and a member of the class of 2028 in the College of Arts and Sciences. You can reach her at zfaraj@cornellsun.com.
