{"id":28524,"date":"2025-11-04T19:05:33","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T19:05:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/28524\/"},"modified":"2025-11-04T19:05:33","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T19:05:33","slug":"turnout-in-nyc-mayoral-election-already-exceeds-2021-race-hours-before-polls-close","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/28524\/","title":{"rendered":"Turnout in NYC mayoral election already exceeds 2021 race, hours before polls close"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers are pouring out to the polls Tuesday to vote in a series of local elections \u2014 including the most consequential mayoral race<\/a> in decades.<\/p>\n

Just shy of 460,000 residents cast ballots in the first six hours of polling sites being open starting at 6 a.m., according to tabulations<\/a> released by the Board of Elections. That\u2019s on top of the more than 735,000 people who voted early before Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Taken together, that means the city had as of noon Tuesday already exceeded the 1.15 million turnout level set in the 2021 local elections. Polls remain open through 9 p.m.<\/p>\n

Longtime New York election observers have said the early voting numbers alone indicated the 2025 elections could bring in more than 2 million votes overall<\/a>. The most recent turnout high water mark in the city on a local level was the 1965 mayoral election, which drew 2.6 million votes, meaning the 2025 race could reach record-smashing territory.<\/p>\n

\"PeoplePeople vote at a polling station in Manhattan on Election Day Tuesday. (Photo by CHARLY TRIBALLEAU\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

The heightened enthusiasm in this year\u2019s election cycle can largely be attributed to the mayoral contest, which has pitted Democratic front-runner Zohran Mamdani against independent candidate Andrew Cuomo and Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa.<\/p>\n

Kevin Moran, an 80-year-old Queens resident and lifelong Democrat, cast a ballot for Cuomo at Middlle School 225 in South Ozone Park on Tuesday morning, saying he did so, in part, because the Daily News editorial board as well as ex-Mayor Michael Bloomberg endorsed him<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Still, Moran, a retired cab driver and U.S. Postal Service worker, said he wouldn\u2019t be upset if Mamdani wins, noting he ranked both him and Cuomo in the June Democratic mayoral primary that Mamdani won.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy sentiments are not anti-Mamdani. I have no issue with Mamdani being a socialist Democrat or whatever,\u201d he said before adding: \u201cIf Mamdani wins, I\u2019ll be happy. I think he\u2019ll be able to do everything that comes up as the mayor of the city. He\u2019ll appoint different people. I think it\u2019ll probably be a bit of a rough road for him but I think he\u2019ll be able to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"KevinKevin Moran, an 80-year-old Queens resident and lifelong Democrat, cast a ballot for Cuomo at Middle School 225 in South Ozone Park on Tuesday morning. (Emma Seiwell \/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

Mayor Adams, the incumbent, isn\u2019t seeking reelection this year, having dropped out of the contest in late September<\/a> amid record low approval ratings driven, in part, by his federal corruption indictment.<\/p>\n

Also on Tuesday\u2019s ballots are elections for city comptroller, public advocate, City Council seats, district attorney posts and judgeships. An overwhelming majority of the down-ballot races aren\u2019t seen as competitive.<\/p>\n

Mamdani, a democratic socialist, has consistently polled as the favorite to win the mayoral race after running a campaign centered on tackling the city\u2019s cost of living crisis. Still, the race has been seen as particularly competitive because of the decision by Cuomo, New York\u2019s former governor, to run as an independent in the general election after losing to Mamdani in June\u2019s Democratic primary.<\/p>\n

Speaking to reporters after casting a ballot for himself at a Midtown East polling site Tuesday morning, Cuomo, joined by two of his adult daughters, called the mayoral contest the \u201cmost important election of my lifetime.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is going to determine the future of the City of New York,\u201d said Cuomo, who resigned as governor in 2021 amid sexual and professional misconduct accusations he denies. \u201cIt may also determine the future of the Democratic Party.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AndrewAndrew Cuomo after voting at The High School of Art and Design in Manhattan Tuesday. (Barry Williams\/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

Mamdani, speaking to reporters after voting for himself at a site in Astoria together with his wife, expressed confidence he\u2019ll prevail and gave a shout-out to the volunteers who have been knocking doors and canvassing for him over the past few months.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so thankful to the more than 100,000 volunteers who have brought us to this point, where we are on the brink of making history in our city, on the brink of saying goodbye to a politics of the past,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Mamdani also broke some news at his polling site<\/a>, revealing before heading inside he was going to vote yes on all of the three controversial housing development-related referendum questions on the ballot.<\/p>\n

The questions, which were advanced by Adams\u2019 administration and aim to make it easier to build housing in the city, would give the next mayor more powers to override City Council denial of certain developments. It\u2019s an expansion of authority that several high-profile Mamdani supporters oppose, putting the Democratic nominee in a fraught spot.<\/p>\n

For weeks prior to Election Day, Mamdani declined to take a position on the ballot questions. Cuomo has been publicly supportive of them for months, while Sliwa opposes them.<\/p>\n

\"DemocraticDemocratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani and his wife, Rama Duwaji, vote at Frank Sinatra School of the Arts High School in Queens Tuesday. (Barry Williams\/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

At Cuomo\u2019s polling site, local resident William Row, 83, said he was voting for the ex-governor because of his long record in government.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that he\u2019s solid, he\u2019s knowledgeable, he\u2019s experienced, and the list of the things that he did here is amazing,\u201d Row said, noting Cuomo as governor oversaw the construction of the new LaGuardia Airport<\/a> and other projects.<\/p>\n

Mamdani, Row added, looks \u201clike a child\u201d next to Cuomo.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s unusual to see somebody who looks like a high school sophomore running for mayor. I don\u2019t remember anything like that. Usually they\u2019re grizzled old lawyers, you know,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd older people like me are comforted by that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers are pouring out to the polls Tuesday to vote in a series…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28525,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[80,302,154,9,24,56,63,65,64,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-28524","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-andrew-cuomo","9":"tag-city-hall","10":"tag-curtis-sliwa","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-city","13":"tag-ny","14":"tag-nyc","15":"tag-nyc-headlines","16":"tag-nyc-news","17":"tag-zohran-mamdani"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28524","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=28524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28524\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}