The Deep Red County has few contested races this election cycle. However, the most important thing to voters this cycle is not necessarily who they are voting for but what they are voting for. Jamal Harris of WBFO sits down with Andrew Harris from the Wellsville Sun to discuss the proposition one amendment on the ballot among various other issues facing the county.
J Harris: What are some of the national issues being talked about with inflation, gas prices, grocery stores, and then maybe some issues closer to the localities?
A Harris: The big issues on the national level here are kind of a moot point because we're talking 95% Republican support. So, every talking point that comes from the Trump Campaign has strong support for all.
J Harris: What are some of the local issues that some voters are unhappy about, that we may see reflected at the ballot box?
A Harris: The only really interesting, bigger election issue is proposition one. I expect down here will lean heavy 'No,' because every Republican institution has done everything they can do, to basically instill fear in people that boys will be playing girls' sports, parents losing all their rights. They don't hear the other side.
J Harris: How do people kind of feel about that? Are they pretty upset? Do they feel like, 'Well, you know, it's going to pass anyway'?
A Harris: The Republican Party because there is no real contested election for them to focus on this, they're spending all their time on this. And I think our news outlets have gotten at least three different submissions from either elected Republican officials or Republican Party that we've had to refuse because they actually included things in their statements that just weren't true.
J Harris: They're kind of putting all their effort into this proposition one, 'vote no on this thing' for the most part. That’s kind of what you're saying?
A Harris: Oh yeah, Houghton University down here, and they've issued lots of inflammatory things, in my opinion, on the subject. And then just in the last week, the Republican Party has really started to issue multiple statements about the subject, but also, they're including language that is more definite than what the proposition actually says. It's kind of a broad increase in people's civil rights. It's hard to say how it'll actually turn out, but they would let you believe that if this is voted in, automatically boys will be able to play girls' sports. Boys will be able to use girl’s bathrooms, and schools will be able to administer sex change drugs to children without parents' consent, which is just not true.
J Harris: I did see that a lot of localities are uncontested.
A Harris: Most of them, the vast majority, are uncontested. There's one contested race that would be for the mayor of the village of Wellsville, which is our biggest population center. But that said, it's not really a competition. The incumbent mayor, Republican, well known, and the challenger is a third-party independent, which Allegany County, has never seen anybody elected from a third party in recent history.
J Harris: Is there any other thing that we should kind of be aware of going on in Allegany?
A Harris: I had a talk with the board of elections, and they just want to make sure that I noted that in 2023 the county had 1.6% of the vote with early voting, and already, as of this morning, 10% of eligible voters have participated in early voting.