Over 12,000 people in the five boroughs showed up to the polls over the weekend, for New York’s first-ever early voting period.
Many people who turned out at one polling site in Chelsea on Sunday described themselves as regular voters, the kind that would typically drag themselves out on any Election Day Tuesday (no matter how inconvenient). They said they showed up for early voting for the novelty of it.
“I've been hearing about early voting in other states and in other parts of the U.S.,” said Anita Muhammed told Gothamist. “I'm like, New York has 8 million people, how come we don't have early voting?!”
According to the New York City Board of Elections, the first day of early voting, Saturday, October 26th, drew approximately 8,558 people to the polls. And on Sunday, perhaps due to the stormy weather, 3,964 people turned out.
Some people who voted on Saturday told Gothamist their polling sites weren’t running smoothly. Others reported having printer issues when trying to print their customized ballot, a new feature this year (previously, poll workers would manually enter numbers from ballots into ledgers).
One poll worker said the first hour of open polls on Saturday was “somewhat chaotic,” with about 70 poll workers at his site trying to figure out how to use the new iPads and make them sync up to printers. But he said the initial issues were resolved fairly quickly.
Overwhelmingly, voters who responded to Gothamist’s early voting survey reported having a quick and seamless experience. Some described it as a kind of cheat code, a voting “hack” to win you back an hour or two of waiting on line on a typical Tuesday Election Day.
“It was great. Didn’t have to take off from work, didn’t have to put things aside,” said Michael Raab, who lives near Union Square. He said he stood in an hour-long line to vote in the last presidential election. Casting his vote early, on a Sunday, was very different.
"Except for the fact that I ran into someone I knew, I would've been in and out in five minutes," said Raab.
Early voting continues every day through Sunday, November 3rd; you can find your polling site here. You can alsoshare your thoughts and experiences with us—just fill out this brief survey. Election Day is on November 5th.
Correction: An earlier version of this story stated that over 21,000 people voted early over the weekend. That was incorrect. We regret the error.
Shumita Basu is a host, producer and reporter in the newsroom. You can follow her on Twitter @shubasu.
