Good Question: How to elections officials make sure people don’t vote twice?

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — You need a valid ID to register to vote but after that, all you need is a signature to verify it’s really you. So what’s to stop people from voting twice?

Brian asks: “If you voted early, how would your polling location be able to know you have already voted if someone were to go and try to vote again?”

The Monroe County Board of Elections has a system in place to address this issue and prevent voter fraud. Republican Elections Commissioner Lisa Nicolay says that, if you voted early, it’s recorded and stored electronically.

“When you signed your name at your early voting site, you were marked in the system as having already voted,” Nicolay said.

The same is true for mail-in ballots. Nicolay says the voter attendance information is downloaded onto the tablets poll workers use to check you in. The information is updated and synced regularly throughout the day to make sure every person only votes once.

Yes, the system tracks if you’ve already voted – it does not track who you voted for. Even if you’re registered with a specific party, your vote remains private, even to the people counting the ballots.

If you have a question you’d like answered, send an email to goodquestion@whec.com.

A.I. assisted with the formatting of this story. Click here to see how WHEC News 10 uses A.I.