NEW YORK — New York City voters had abortion, crime and climate change on their minds Tuesday while they cast their ballots for governor and other key local races.
Polls across the five boroughs opened at 6 a.m. Eastern time and will remain available until 9 p.m., with more than 300,000 people having voted by 11:30 a.m., according to the city Board of Elections.
The race between Gov. Kathy Hochul and Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y., is by far the most competitive contest being decided, and the one voters view as being most impactful.
“Our democracy is at stake this year,” said Reed McLaurin, 27, a tenants rights lawyer from the Upper West Side. “We have people across the country who don’t believe the last election was fair and we can’t let them take over.”
The office of state attorney general, state legislators’ and congressional representatives’ seats are also up for grabs.
“We gotta get people in there that represent us and aren’t representing their power,” Thomas Spahn, an Upper West Side musician, said. “We’re about to lose democracy.”
Spahn, 67, who owns up to having spotty voting record, said he’s become more engaged recently over the issue of abortion.
That also drove Manhattan public school teacher Anthony Harmon to the polls.
“(Zeldin’s) whole stance on how he feels about a woman’s right to choose is a concern for me, as I have a mother, sister, aunts, you know, the women in my family, right. It’s a real important issue,” Harmon, 55, said. “So that’s one of the issues that most concerns me. I also think that he’s become like an echo chamber for you know, the Donald Trump administration that I’m not a fan of."
Louis Kleinman, a longtime Upper West Side resident, said his major concerns are climate change and Zeldin’s denial of the 2020 presidential election results.
“On the top of my mind was the false narrative of the election steal,” Kleinman, 87, said.
James Bailey, of Harlem, said that as a Black man he doesn’t take the right to vote lightly, and that he worries about his rights if more Republicans are elected.
“I don’t see them as Republicans no more, I see them as Trumpers,” Bailey, 71, said. “They’re trying to tear down the country.”
Fellow Harlem resident Sherman Powell, 75, unenthusiastically cast his vote for Hochul, even though he thought Zeldin has a “better platform” because of his focus on crime. But the gun control issue proved more important to Powell.
“I do believe that the Democrats want to do something about the guns,” he said. “The Democrats are the lesser of the two evils.”
Zeldin’s campaign has harnessed voters’ concerns about crime and the economy, and even life-long Democrats are being swayed.
Brooklyn nurse Anna Jones cast her first non-Democratic vote — for Zeldin — at Bedford-Stuyvesant’s Public School 81.
“I’ve never in my life voted Republican, but she’s just not the person for the job. I mean, she inherited the job,” Jones said of Hochul, who assumed office in the wake of former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s resignation last year.
“I want something different, rather than the same old thing,” Jones, 61, explained. “Let’s try something different. Either I was gonna vote for him, or I wasn’t gonna vote at all. So I just decided, ‘You know what, let me vote for him.’”
Jones split her ticket, though, and voted Democratic for all other down-ballot posts, including Letitia James for attorney general.
In Williamsburg, Brooklyn Michael Prisco, 61, a retired BOE employee also voted for Zeldin.
“I think he’s going to approach it the way Pataki and Giuliani approached it — law and order,” said Prisco, whose political views have been formed by the violence he and his family have experienced.
Prisco, a supporter of Mayor Eric Adams, said he was rooting for Hochul when she took over for Cuomo but quickly became dissatisfied.
“She’s not listening to us,” he said. “She should know that in a blue state, she’s fighting for her survival, and that should mean something’s wrong. The train is off the track.”
Crime was also key for Katie, a 68 year old from the Upper West Side. She said her cousin was recently stabbed and she worries about bail reform, which Zeldin has focused on.
“If they’re not going to prosecute people, if they do something, then they’re arrested, then they’re out on the street again ... there’s going to be another victim,” said Katie, who declined to share her last name.
“Who knows if he is even going to be able to do anything,” she added.
Zeldin’s ties to former President Donald Trump seemingly made him an unlikely challenger in a state that hasn’t seen a Republican governor in two decades.
Hochul dominated in the Democratic primary, and entered the general election race anticipating an easy reelection. But with tight poll numbers, her campaign has come alive in the past two weeks and pulled out the political big guns — President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and both Hillary and Bill Clinton — to stump for her across the state.
More than 400,000 New Yorkers took advantage of early voting, state data shows, a hopeful sign for Democrats.
Adams cast his ballot at P.S. 81 in Brooklyn around 10:30 a.m., sporting an NYPD hat and a jacket emblazoned with “NYC MAYOR” on the back. He said he has complete faith in Hochul after being asked if he’d be able to work with a Gov. Zeldin.
“I don’t even know why I need that question. Kathy’s winning tonight,” Adams said. “I’m looking forward to continuing the partnership that we’ve had. So I cast my vote for her and I’m excited about continuing some of the stuff we’ve done.”
Harmon, the school teacher, who also voted at P.S. 81, was encouraged by the voter turnout numbers he checked before he headed to his poll site.
“I think voting in every election is important, whether you’re voting for president, City Council, dog catcher, you need to vote to make sure that your voices are heard,” he said.
———
