BATH, N.Y. (WETM) – After Governor Cuomo issued an executive order mandating that the New York state board of elections automatically mail every New Yorker a postage-paid application for an absentee ballot, there has been a significant increase in absentee ballots received.

Today is day three of early voting in Steuben county for the Democratic presidential primary.

During the last presidential primary, the Steuben county board of elections issued 472 Democratic absentee ballots issued and received 360. This year, there have been 3,772 ballots issued and 2,112 received.

“The turnout here has been kind of low, but it’s the first of the week it could pick up during the week.” We’ve had four voters so far today, but I think as word gets out we may get more,” said Kelly Penziul, the Democratic commissioner of elections for Steuben County.

“A lot of people don’t understand why we aren’t having a Republican primary right now, but we didn’t have any of our races that had more republican candidates than we had seats,” said Vicky Olin, the Republican commissioner of elections for Steuben County.

Penzuil also said that even though there wasn’t a large in-person turnout, and that the number of absentee ballots has increased, it’s still too early to tell if there will be a low voter turnout overall.