ALBANY COUNTY — “Amazing” and “awesome” are the words Albany County Executive Daniel McCoy used to describe the long lines of voters he saw on Saturday and Sunday as he and Sheriff Craig Apple toured the county.

“We’ve never seen lines like that,” McCoy said.

The only other time he has seen such lines is when he served in Iraq and citizens, voting for the first time, waited in lines for days, said McCoy, who serves in the National Guard.

This is the first time New Yorkers have been able to vote early in a presidential election.

Over the weekend, McCoy said, 7,448 Albany County residents voted.

Altogether, he reported, the county has sent out 36,529 absentee ballots.

The state loosened restriction for absentee voting this year because of the pandemic.

As of Monday morning, about half of those ballots — 17,859 — have been returned, McCoy reported.

He also noted that an astronaut had voted.

Kate Rubins shared her voting selfie from orbit in the International Space Station. She used a secure electronic ballot and sent it back to Mission Control, which will pass the completed ballot on to her county clerk. 

Since an astronaut — “someone not even on this planet” — voted, McCoy said there is no excuse not to vote.