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Buffalo (WBEN) -- Some New Yorkers will take part in three primary elections this year, and an Erie County lawmaker would like to combine two of those into a single day.
The presidential primary is set for April 24th. The Congressional primary is June 26th, and the regular primary for local and state candidates is set for September.
Erie County Legislator Terrence McCracken is sponsoring a bill asking the State Legislature to combine the local, state, and Congressional primaries onto that June 26th voting day -- saying those primaries will have a hefty price tag for Erie County.
"That's going to cost into the hundreds of thousands of dollars," McCracken says, noting some of the funding for the primaries isn't in the current county budget.
He also says most counties haven't budgeted for three primary days, potentially causing holes in other counties' budgets as well.
The lawmaker thinks it would be easy to combine the primaries.
"I think the taxpayers in Erie County don't need another state mandate put on them. They should place these two together and save the money," he says.
Plus, he says people don't turn out in big numbers for primary elections.
McCracken also wants the Erie County elections commissioners to attend an upcoming meeting of the county legislature's Government Affairs committee meeting to discuss the primary-day elections.
