{"id":16560,"date":"2025-10-25T19:14:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-25T19:14:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/16560\/"},"modified":"2025-10-25T19:14:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-25T19:14:08","slug":"early-voting-begins-in-new-york-city-and-new-jersey-nbc-new-york","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/16560\/","title":{"rendered":"Early voting begins in New York City and New Jersey \u2013 NBC New York"},"content":{"rendered":"

Polling places opened Saturday for the start<\/a> of in-person voting for two of the year’s most closely watched elections: the New York City mayor’s race<\/a> and the contest to pick New Jersey’s next governor.<\/a><\/p>\n

New Yorkers are choosing<\/a> between Democrat Zohran Mamdani, Republican Curtis Sliwa and former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat on the ballot as an independent. The incumbent mayor, Eric Adams, is also on the ballot but dropped out of the race last month and recently threw his support behind Cuomo.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"From<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t(AP Photo\/Angelina Katsanis, Pool)<\/p>\n

\t\t\t(AP Photo\/Angelina Katsanis, Pool)<\/p>\n

From left, Mayoral candidates, Independent candidate former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa, and Democratic candidate Zohran Mamdani participate in a debate, Thursday, Oct. 16, 2025, in New York. <\/p>\n

The New Jersey governor\u2019s race <\/a>features Republican state Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli against Democratic U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"This<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t(AP Photos\/Heather Khalifa)<\/p>\n

\t\t\t(AP Photos\/Heather Khalifa)<\/p>\n

This combination photo shows candidates for governor of New Jersey Republican Jack Ciattarelli, left, and Democrat Mikie Sherrill during the final debate in governors race, Oct. 8, 2025, in New Brunswick, N.J. <\/p>\n

The off-year elections are key tests for Democratic Party leaders as they try to decide what kinds of candidates, priorities and political messaging might best counter Republican President Donald Trump \u2019s<\/a> agenda ahead of the crucial 2026 midterms.<\/p>\n

The races, to that end, have spotlighted affordability and cost-of-living issues as well as ongoing divisions within the Democratic Party, says Ashley Koning, director of the Eagleton Center for Public Interest Polling at Rutgers University in New Jersey.<\/p>\n

\u201cNew York City pits the progressive wing against the establishment old guard in Mamdani versus Cuomo, while New Jersey is banking on moderate candidate Mikie Sherrill to appeal to its broad middle,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWith three weeks from Election Day and just two days until the candidates are set to debate, Zohran Mamdani got a boost from Gov. Kathy Hochul, Curtis Sliwa is refocusing on crime, and Andrew Cuomo is courting Mayor Eric Adams’ supporters. NBC New York’s Andrew Siff reports.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

On Saturday morning, a steady stream of voters turned out at an early voting site at Creedmoor, a psychiatric hospital in the New York City borough of Queens where Mamdani lives and Cuomo was born and raised. <\/p>\n

Deepa Paulus, a 28-year-old artist, was among a number of younger voters who cast their ballot for Mamdani,<\/a> citing his pledge to tackle housing and other affordability issues in the high-cost city.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has a lot of really good ideas for the future of New York, and I feel very hopeful when I hear him talking,\u201d the registered Democrat said. \u201cI know it\u2019s hard to actually implement changes like that, but I\u2019m excited to see what he does.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mamdani, a democratic socialist, has electrified liberal voters who are drawn to his proposals such as universal, free child care, free buses, and a rent freeze for New Yorkers living in about 1 million rent-regulated apartments. <\/p>\n

However Alix Mondesir, a 67-year-old retired lawyer, said he voted for Cuomo even as he conceded that the \u201cidealism of Mamdani spoke to my heart directly.”<\/p>\n

\u201cThe bottom line is we can\u2019t go on hopes. We have to go on someone that shows that they can handle the budget, that they\u2019ve been in the fire and that they\u2019ve survived,\u201d the registered Democrat said. \u201cI don\u2019t want a guy learning on the job. I want a guy with a proven track record.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cuomo has portrayed Mamdani’s policies as naive and financially irresponsible. He has appealed to voters to pick him because of his experience as the state’s governor, a position he gave up in 2021 after multiple women accused him of sexual harassment.<\/p>\n

Cuomo has also assailed Mamdani, who would be the city’s first Muslim mayor<\/a>, over his criticism of Israel.<\/p>\n

Mamdani, who has weathered anti-Muslim rhetoric during the contest, says Israel\u2019s war in Gaza amounts to genocide. Cuomo and Sliwa, the founder of the Guardian Angels public safety patrol group, equate Mamdani’s position with antisemitism.<\/p>\n

The New Jersey gubernatorial candidates, in their final debate earlier this month, sparred over the federal government shutdown, Sherrill\u2019s military records, Trump’s policies and the high cost of living in the state. The winner would succeed Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy, who is term-limited. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThere has been a dramatic turn in the race for governor in New Jersey. Democrats are demanding an investigation after Rep. Mikie Sherrill’s military records were released, part of which were not redacted when it should have been. Meanwhile, Republican candidate Jack Ciattarelli is going after Sherrill’s history in the Navy.\u00a0NBC New York’s Pat Battle reports.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

New York has allowed early voting since 2019, and it has become relatively popular. In June\u2019s mayoral primary, about 35% of the ballots were cast early and in person, according to the city\u2019s campaign finance board. New Jersey adopted early voting in 2021.<\/p>\n

Early voting is also underway in other states.<\/p>\n

In Virginia, voters began casting early ballots on Sept. 19. The state’s closely-watched governor’s race pits former U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger, a Democrat, and Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears. <\/p>\n

One of those candidates will become Virginia’s first female governor. During a debate earlier this month, they clashed over cultural issues such as the rights of transgender children in sports and school bathrooms.<\/p>\n

Early voting runs through Nov. 1 in Virginia and Nov. 2 in New York City and New Jersey. Polling sites in all three states will then open widely for Election Day on Nov. 4. <\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Follow Philip Marcelo at https:\/\/x.com\/philmarcelo<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Polling places opened Saturday for the start of in-person voting for two of the year’s most closely watched…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16561,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[9,24,55,54,56,87],"class_list":{"0":"post-16560","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-new-york-city-headlines","11":"tag-new-york-city-news","12":"tag-ny","13":"tag-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16560"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16560\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}