NY election reforms would make it harder to toss absentee ballots Updated Jan 10, 2021; Posted Jan 10, 2021 Jonathan Lang inspects a ballot for The Onondaga Board of Elections which began counting ballots Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2020 at their office downtown. 57,000 people in Onondaga County voted by absentee in the 2020 election.N. Scott Trimble | strimble@syracuse.com Facebook Share New York senators this week plan to vote on legislation meant to make it easier for people to use absentee ballots, to ensure more of those votes are counted -- and to speed up the paper ballot count. One key part of the proposal is meant to make it much harder for lawyers and politicians to scrutinize each paper ballot and toss it because of a stray mark or an unsealed envelope.