Early Voting Kicks Off In NYC With Voters Trickling In To Polls To Choose Next Mayor

The election for the next mayor of New York City and other offices kicked off with seemingly muted turnout at 106 early voting sites that opened at 8 a.m. on Saturday across the city.

At a polling site on the Upper East Side, around 20 people had trickled in by 9 a.m. According to several of them, casting a ballot was still a prized ritual even if the outcome might seem pre-determined in a city dominated by Democrats.

“It’s an honor and a privilege and a duty to vote,” said Asfar, a woman who was born in Iran. Asfar, who was among the early voters at Eleanor Roosevelt High School on 76th Street on the Upper East Side, said she had actually expected more of a crowd.

Just before 9 a.m., Hector and Maling Feliciano went to vote inside the Bronx County Courthouse. The couple said they found the experience hassle-free.

Maling Feliciano, a former recreation coordinator at a shelter in Tremont, said voting was a way of ensuring her voice matters. “If anything, if I need any help, they could see that I’m a voter,” she said.

Hector Feliciano was driven to vote because he felt the city had grown unsafe and overburdened by the ongoing pandemic. He had no qualms about disclosing who he voted for: Curtis Sliwa, the Republican nominee for mayor, who Hector Feliciano said was best suited to handle any crisis affecting the city.

He argued that if Eric Adams—the current Brooklyn borough president, retired NYPD captain, and Democratic nominee for mayor—can’t control the high number of shootings in Brooklyn, how could he be expected to successfully lead the city?

“If he can’t do a good job in his borough, how [is] he going to do a good job in the five boroughs?” Hector Feliciano said.

Borough presidents have no real authority over the NYPD, unlike the mayor who appoints the commissioner and oversees the police budget.

Bronx resident Natasha Jackson stood on the opposite end of the political spectrum, revealing she voted for Adams, citing his deep roots in the city and his career in the NYPD.

“He actually — and not to say Sliwa didn’t — but he grew up in the city, he knows the city, he was a police officer,” Jackson said after she cast her vote at the Bronx County Courthouse. “So he knows the ins and outs of the NYPD. And I think the NYPD, they’ve gotten a bad rap.”

Jackson said she hopes Adams would be able to address the ongoing violence in city public schools for the sake of her high school-aged son.

Unlike the the primary elections in June which introduced ranked-choice voting, voters praised the general election’s early-voting process as smooth.

“I like the fact that it’s early, and I like the fact that I can come in and out,” said Jackson in the Bronx. “I like this early voting. I can come early, do what I have to do, and have the rest of my day to go.”

Larry Brabham, 74, sailed in and out of the polling site at the Masonic Temple in Fort Greene. “It went well, very well,” he said of the process to cast his vote. Brabham said he voted for Adams because “he stood out to me more, and I knew him from past experiences,” he said, and added with a chuckle, “he’s from Brooklyn, too.”

Along with voting for the top office, voters will select the next public advocate, comptroller and their five borough presidents. Five proposals are on the ballot citywide while all 51 City Council seats are up for election. There are also a number of candidates for a judgeship appearing on the ballot.

Haley Keizur, who recently moved from Puyallup, a town in Washington state with a population of around 42,000, was voting for her very first time in New York.

“I was a little overwhelmed at first, but I just did a lot of research online,” she said at Eleanor Roosevelt High School.

Keizur, who wore a blue shirt with the words, “Please Vote,” said she appreciated the ability to vote early on a weekend. In her home state, voting is also done by mail. “It’s just a lot easier process,” she said.

Over at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, voting was taking place in a small and tightly packed room on the building’s south side.

Not exactly the Temple of Dendur, remarked one poll worker.

But Emily Kurtz nevertheless appreciated the convenience of early voting. “All elections are important to me, especially with what’s going on currently in Washington,” she said. "So I want to be the first one and get it out of the way. Plus what could be nicer than voting at the Met?”

Kurtz, like some voters, shied away from saying who they voted for.

Manya Alston of Fort Greene emerged from the Masonic Temple and declined to say who she voted for, but she urged fellow citizens to head to the polls by Election Day. “I just hope that folks will come out and vote, and put the right person in office so we can move forward,” Alston said.

Mitchell Ratchik, 51, of Fort Greene also declined to reveal his vote: “I've known both candidates for a long time,” Ratchik said of Adams and Sliwa outside the Masonic Temple. “I'm not going to tell you who I voted for, but let's just say...let’s make sure that the crazy doesn't get in.”

Ratchik did offer thoughts on the importance of making elections accessible. “I hope that they can continue making it as convenient as possible for people to do their civic duties and to engage in the democratic process,” Ratchik said. “I think it's the most important thing that we have going for us, especially when you look at other countries.”

Early voting went into effect in the city in 2019 and runs for nine days this year, ending on October 31st, two days before Election Day. The city Board of Elections tracks the number of people who cast a ballot on each early voting day.

Barbara Rowes, 75, a retired high school teacher, was among those who said they voted for Adams.

Asked why, she offered, “Anyone’s better than de Blasio.”

An earlier version of this story misspelled the surname of Barbara Rowes, a voter on the Upper East Side. She also voted at Eleanor Roosevelt High School, not the Met.