Primary Turnout: Roughly 1 in 13 Voted in NYC Races

Primary Day ended in New York City with few surprises: Incumbents won. And very few people actually voted for them.

Preliminary numbers from the seven Congressional districts that featured Democratic primaries on Tuesday indicate that roughly 132,500 of the 1.7 million or so active Democratic voters in those districts cast ballots.

The highest turnout, in raw and percentage terms, was in the 13th district where Rep. Charles Rangel is retiring. According to preliminary results reported by NY1, some 38,000 people in the Bronx and Manhattan cast ballots, equal to around 12.6 percent of those the state Board of Elections deems “active Democrats.”

The lowest turnout was in the 5th district, represented by Rep. Gregory Meeks, who faced a single challenger. A mere 7,300 people turned out in a district that is home to 278,000 Dems. That’s a turnout of 2.6 percent. The entire voting public in that race would fit in the Brooklyn Cyclones stadium, with room for friends.

Compared with the last June primary, in 2014, that contested 13th district race actually saw fewer people participate. More than 50,000 votes were recorded in that district’s primary two years ago, when Rangel was running for his final turn.

On the other hand, the 7th district, represented by Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez, appears to have posted an uptick in votes cast: from 9,555 in 2014 to more than 15,000 this year. The congresswoman beat attorney Jeff Kurzon by a margin of 80 to 19 percent two years ago, but her margin fell considerably this year against Kurzon and Yungman Lee: Velazquez nabbed 62 percent of the vote to Lee’s 28 and Kurzon’s 10.