TOMPKINS COUNTY, N.Y. — Today is primary day! With this year’s election process being anything but normal, election night — which would normally see reporters burning the midnight oil to bring readers results by Wednesday morning — will likely stretch into the month of July with so many voters choosing to avoid the polls and cast absentee ballots due to concerns from COVID-19.

The Tompkins County Board of Elections told the Voice that they had issued 11,761 absentee ballots and have received around 6,500 as of noon. Absentee ballots must be post parked by today to be counted.

That absentee accounting process is largely the reason voters in Tompkins will have to wait more than a week to find out who won the crowded race for New York State Assembly District 125, the contentious race for District Attorney and who will serve as City of Ithaca judge for the next decade.

“Election Law mandates that every county board across the state submit a list of all those people that voted in person, all those people that voted by absentee ballot and all of those people that voted by affidavit ballot,” said Democratic Election Commissioner Stephen DeWitt. “We have until June 30 to complete that process. Overnight on June 30, they (the state) will advise every board of any voter that voted twice and we will act accordingly.”

The Voice reported on Monday that anyone that voted via absentee ballot may still cast a ballot at their polling place in person, which will cause their absentee ballot to be laid aside. Once the board of elections has weeded out duplicate ballots and ensured that voters have only case one ballot, the process of counting absentee ballots will begin. “We fully anticipate beginning the process of opening and tabulating all eligible ballots on July 1,” added DeWitt.

That does not mean there will be no results — the Tompkins County Board of Elections should have results from in-person voters by 10:30 p.m. Tuesday night, according to DeWitt — but barring a landslide in one of the races, results are likely to change once absentee and other ballots are counted.

COVID-19 fears have not kept everyone away. The polling site workers at the locations visited by the Voice on Tuesday said that turnout has been steady.

Voter turnout has been as expected, according to Janis Kelly, the Republican poll sight manager at Town of Ithaca Hall. There are between 1300 and 1400 Democrats registered to vote at that location, added Catie Thompson, the Democratic poll sight manager. Polling declined to share how many people had turned out to vote in person. Both said they are expecting a relatively high voter turnout, once the mailed ballots are taken into account.

Turnout at the Greater Ithaca Activities Center (GIAC) was slower in the morning but has picked up at a steady rate in the afternoon, said Kari Stamm, the poll sight manager. Out of 2322 voters that are registered to vote at GIAC, 98 have voted so far and Stamm is expecting numbers to increase.

“We are pleased that so many people have come out to vote,” Stamm added despite the worries over the pandemic. “Everyone has been very accommodating.”

Selin Tuter contributed to this report