THREE KEY RACES: Mark your calendar now! Better yet, print out a copy of this article for continued reference.

By Chris McKenna, Journal News

New Yorkers will head to the polls three times in 2024 to cast ballots for president and for state and federal lawmakers, with party primaries in April and June before the main event in November.

Here are the voting dates and deadlines for voters to register, change parties or their registration address, or request mail-in and absentee ballots for each of those contests.

2024 election dates in New York

New York holds early voting at designated sites for nine days before every election except the presidential primary, which has eight early-voting days.

Polls are open for at least eight hours a day, but counties choose which hours and which voting sites to use. Early voting ends two days before the election.

Key dates for presidential primary

The winnowed race between front-runner Donald Trump and Nikki Haley for the Republican presidential nomination may end long before New York’s April 2 primary. But here are the relevant dates.

• Feb. 14: Deadline to switch party
• March 23: Registration deadline; last day to apply online or by mail for mail-in or absentee ballot
• March 23-30: Early voting (check your county board of elections for hours, locations)
• April 2: Election day. Polls open 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Key dates for Congress, state legislature primaries

The other elections in New York are for a six-year term for U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand’s seat; two-year terms for each of the state’s 26 seats in the House of Representatives; and two-year terms for all 213 seats in the state Senate and Assembly

Only some races will start with nominating contests between candidates of the same party.

To see which offices will hold primaries on June 25, check the state Board of Elections website after it certifies the primary ballots on May 1: https://www.elections.ny.gov/

In New York, only voters enrolled in a party may vote in that party’s primaries. Democrats can’t vote in a Republican primary, and vice versa.

Voters with no party — call them independent, or unaffiliated, or “blanks” — can’t vote in any primary.

Voters who want to change parties so they can vote in a primary have a very early deadline to do so: Feb. 14.

Any later enrollment changes won’t take effect until July 5 — after the primaries.

One caveat about these dates: New York is redrawing its congressional district lines again, which means the primary for House seats (and voter deadlines) could be delayed if Republicans sue to challenge the new map. 

That’s what happened in 2022, when the primary was postponed for nearly two months to August.

If that happens again, state legislature primaries would still take place on June 25, but another date would be set for congressional primaries — giving New York four elections in 2024 (not including school board elections in May!).

Key dates for the Nov. 5 general election:

• Feb. 14: Deadline to switch party
• June 10: Last day to change registration address
• June 15: Registration deadline; last day to apply online or by mail for mail-in or absentee ballot
• June 15-23: Early voting (check your county board of elections website for hours, locations)
• June 25: Election day. Polls open 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.

One (sort-of) new wrinkle in 2024: any voter can request a mail-in ballot to cast during early-voting periods. Ballot applications can be submitted online or at a county board of elections.

Go to: https://www.elections.ny.gov/RequestBallot.html

That option, created by a 2023 law, isn’t entirely new because it effectively preserved the wider access to absentee ballots that New Yorkers had for three years during the pandemic.

Before then, voters could get absentee ballot only for certain reasons, such as illness or being away from home on election day.

Mail ballots: New Yorkers could vote by mail in every election under new bill. How it would work

One major caveat: Republicans voted against mail-in voting and have sued to overturn the law

So whether mail-in ballots are available for 2024 elections may depend on that court case.

• Oct. 21: Last day to change registration address
• Oct. 26: Registration deadline; last day to apply online or by mail for mail-in or absentee ballot
• Oct. 26-Nov. 3: Early voting (check your county board of elections website for hours, locations)
• Nov. 5: Election day. Polls open 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Chris McKenna covers government and politics for The Journal News and USA Today Network. Reach him at cmckenna@gannett.com.