An incident at a polling site is underlining some concerns voters have about security and safety when casting their votes.

Albany County has excused one of its poll workers after they read a voter’s ballot aloud at the Bought Fire Community Fire Department in Cohoes on Monday.

Democratic Commissioner Kathleen Donovan said the poll worker will not return.

Donovan said the incident occurred after a voter’s ballot was initially rejected by the machine. As the voter walked away, the poll worker read aloud the ballot while reinserting it into the machine, announcing who the voter had voted for.  

Donovan called it “inappropriate,” and said steps were taken to “rectify the situation.”

The Albany County Board of Elections Office did not respond to Spectrum News 1’s request for an interview Tuesday.  

County Executive Dan McCoy was pleased to hear about the swift response, but was disappointed it happened in the first place.  

“To have this happen to a voter when you see what’s happening on the national scale with all the finger pointing with the ballot fraud.” he said, “That person should be able to go in there, exercise their right and leave without any worker or even somebody going into vote, looking at how they voted.”  

The incident doesn’t appear to deter voters from taking advantage of the early voting period on Tuesday.

McCoy said more than 10% of the county’s registered voters have cast ballots.  

“I know some people think early voting is wrong, but I think it’s great,” said William Bruno, who voted Tuesday. “We showed up. I think we were here five minutes, in and out and it was really easy.”  

Larry Wiest, another voter, said, “It’s a reflex with me, and if you don’t exercise the vote, you’re going to lose it someday.”  

With one week to go before Election Day, state Attorney General Letitia James is encouraging New Yorkers who observe voter intimidation or any other illegal activity at the polls to contact 866-390-2992, or to submit a complaint online.