After tens of thousands of people lined up to vote early at sites across NYC on Saturday, day two kicked off with more long lines during a chilly Sunday. Voters wary of mail-in ballots opted for the in-person voting option.
"We would come out if it were nine-foot of snow," said John Graziano, a Dongan Hills, Staten Island resident who planned to vote for President Donald Trump at the Ocean Breeze Athletic Complex. "He's such an every day Joe. He's our president. And when he talks, he's right there with us."
Staten Island has been a Trump stronghold since 2016, but Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has supporters there too.
"I have to stick with Biden," New Brighton resident Jazzmine Browne said outside of the Central Family Life Center.
"I prefer to do it in person to make sure it's actually cast," Browne added. "The country is just not going right. The pandemic, so many people passed away because of that."
Staten Island early voter Jazzmine Browne.
Staten Islander Charles Nigro planned to vote for Trump, but he won't be voting along party lines down the ballot.
The first-term Congressmember Max Rose has the 52-year-old Dongan Hills resident's vote—rather than his opponent, Trump-backed Nicole Malliotakis, a Brooklyn and Staten Island state assemblymember who has sparred with Rose in a series of political ads in the weeks leading up to the election.
"I thought Max Rose was doing a good job," Nigro said. "He's kind of in the middle, I believe. He's not your typical Democrat."
Lines circled around city blocks at early voting sites across NYC, from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn to the Upper West Side. One voter at West Side High School in Manhattan on West 102nd Street waited in line four hours to cast her ballot.
Early voting lines at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn October 25th, 2020.
Early voting lines on 102nd Street between Amsterdam and Columbus avenues on the Upper West Side October 25th, 2020..
Though early estimates of how many people voted on Sunday weren't immediately available from the NYC Board of Elections, turnout had already reached high levels across the state.
By 1 p.m. Saturday, more people had voted in early voting than the entire 10-day window of early voting during primary elections in June across New York State, secretary to Governor Andrew Cuomo, Melissa DeRosa, said during a press call on Sunday.
In the Bronx, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez slammed the hours of waiting required at some poll sites.
"There is no place in the United States of America where two-, three-, four-hour waits to vote is acceptable," the Bronx lawmaker told reporters, according to ABC7. "And just because it's happening in a blue state, doesn't mean that it's not voter suppression. If we are waiting three hours, four hours, five hours, if this was happening in a swing state, there would be national coverage."
"Frankly, this also shows the success of early voting as well," Ocasio-Cortez said of the turnout during a press availability in the Bronx after she voted in Parkchester. "I will wait two hours just like my neighbors are."
Early voting runs through November 1st; you can find your early voting polling site here (note that early voting sites are different from regular Election Day sites) and you can find early voting hours, which differ from day to day, here. Gothamist/WNYC's early voting guide can be found here.
Tell us about your early voting experience by emailing us at [email protected].
Election Day is November 3rd.
With WNYC's Kate Hinds.
