Candidates across the city are making their last-ditch pleas for seats in Congress, the State Senate and Assembly, across every borough.
More than half a dozen candidates are hoping the support of Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who pulled off his own primary win last year, can help them across the finish line.
They include political newcomer Darializa Avila Chevalier, who is hoping to upset incumbent Adriano Espaillat in NY-13, former City Comptroller Brad Lander, facing off against two-term incumbent Dan Goldman in NY-10 and Assemblymember Claire Valdez, running against Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso in NY-7.
Polls open at 6 a.m. and close at 9 p.m., and you can find your poll site here (it’s often different from early-voting locations). Primaries are closed, meaning you must be a registered Democrat or Republican to vote in respective elections.
Early voting, which began June 13, has been low. Through Sunday, the final day to cast a ballot early, 172,743 people voted early across the city.
There were understandable differences across the boroughs, based on where competitive races are occurring. Manhattan, which has highly publicized congressional campaigns and state legislature races, led the pack at 67,369 votes, according to Board of Elections data.
Brooklyn was next with 54,277 check-ins, then Queens with 33,143. Those boroughs are home to NY-7 and parts of NY-10.
The Bronx had 14,739 early voters, and Staten Island had 3,215.
The early-voter turnout represents 4% of registered voters, an analysis by The City Reporter found.
The wave of younger voters that helped lift Mamdani into office also hasn’t come out in the same numbers, data shows. More than 11,500 ballots were cast by new, and generally younger, voters – just 6.7% of the total. Older New Yorkers came out in comparatively higher numbers.
Test for Mamdani
Although he’s not running, Mayor Mamdani has played a major role in both congressional and state races. Last Thursday, hours after the Knicks parade, he appeared on stage at the Kings Theater with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and his slate of endorsed candidates to help turn out the vote.
In addition to backing Lander, Avila Chevalier and Valdez, Mamdani has also endorsed five candidates running for state senate and assembly seats.
On Saturday morning, the mayor voted early at his new poll site at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in the middle of the 12th congressional district – where tens of millions of dollars have been for or against the candidates, including Assemblymembers Alex Bores and Micah Lasher, as well as Kennedy scion Jack Schlossberg and political pundit and attorney George Conway.
But the mayor kept his selection “between myself, the ballot, and that incredible pen that the Board of Elections gives to every New Yorker,” he said outside the museum. The enthusiasm he’s felt for other congressional races did not extend to his new home.
“I do wish that every New Yorker had the chance to vote for Darializa Avila Chevalier, for Claire Valdez and for Brad Lander – three congressional candidates I’m so excited to endorse,” he said.
Mamdani spent the rest of the weekend stumping for those candidates, hitting up parks and nearly half a dozen clubs in NY-7 with Valdez, urging partiers to make a plan to vote.
Our nonprofit newsroom relies on donations from readers to sustain our local reporting and keep it free for all New Yorkers. Donate to THE CITY today.
The post New Yorkers, It’s Time to Vote! appeared first on The City Reporter.
