Pete DeMola reports in the Times Union about how the Albany tradition of mailing out checks just before an election continues this year. New York is mailing out child and earned income tax payments to about 1.8 million citizens, the state Department of Taxation and Finance said Oct. 11. The average payment of the checks is $270 to relieve pandemic and inflation-related expenses. “We’re delivering these relief checks to hardworking New Yorkers who’ve been feeling the pinch of inflation,” Acting Commissioner of Taxation and Finance Amanda Hiller said. Voting begins this year Oct. 29 and continues through Nov. 8. So far, 360,000 checks have been sent to possible voters. An anonymous state worker said the timing with the election was a coincidence. "Culling through the data put us at the time frame," a spokesperson for the state Department of Tax and Finance said. "It was more so deadlines to get those checks out to homeowners. School and property taxes were due, so we wanted to process those first." Read the full story in the Times Union.