I can’t wait. Voting in NY State and Suffolk county starts on October 24th, a little over 1 month from now!
In contrast to absentee ballots and voting by mail, there seems less risk of your vote not being counted if you choose Early Voting. Your vote is counted when the vote is cast, not weeks later when the mail-in ballots are finally opened, well after Nov. 3rd. You can avoid potential problems. For instance a mail-in ballot could be flagged and not counted because of a technicality, like a signature deemed invalid.
One month or more, between now and October 24th, is an eternity in terms of predicting the Covid-19 situation. Could there be a mini-outbreak? Perhaps even an outbreak related to a polling station? Just in case, you might want to request an absentee ballot. You don’t have to use it if you decide to vote in person by Early Voting.
Note: I am not suggesting that you vote twice!
In June when 6 of us voted early for the primary election in East Hampton, the experience was seamless. There were no lines. We were all done in less than 5 minutes. The poll workers were friendly and helpful, and everyone was masked and mostly 6 feet distanced. All windows and doors to the polling station were open to allow a breeze to circulate. It felt like outdoors. In June there were few voters who chose to vote early. Perhaps this method of casting your vote is still new and unfamiliar to voters. This really needs to change.
Pick your date and time now (!) and make sure you know where the polling station is. It may not be your familiar polling station if you are voting early.
Here is some relevant information from the Suffolk County Board of Elections:
R&R - Reachout and Rebuild 
Ahem! My first reaction to this post is that this is unhelpful and even echoes the Trump negative attacks on voting by mail.
I think it may also be encouraging risky behavior.
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I have no problem with absentee ballots and voting by mail. Certainly, if you want to be cautious because of age or Covid risk factors. Note: it took the BoE about 2 weeks to finalize the primary election counts in Suffolk county and delays were even longer elsewhere. If such delays happen again in Nov. as predicted by many, Trump/Zeldin will claim victory based on Nov 3rd early vote counts and they will discount results that trickle in later from absentee ballots. They will call up their most militant followers. It could get ugly.
During Early Voting – October 24th through November 1st – Voters may vote at any one of the 12 Early Voting locations throughout Suffolk County which will be clean, safe and secure. Booths, privacy sleeves and pens will be continuously sanitized.
Safety precautions for poll workers in this instructional video:
I took the Suffolk County BoE certification seminar today and was sworn in as a poll worker (inspector). Note we were urged to encourage people to vote early rather than on Nov 3rd or by mail (absentee ballot). The reason being that BoE is concerned about being swamped by mail-in votes that will take them weeks to deal with.
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