An Inordinately Detailed Look at the Most Boring Elections of 2020

In the 59 executive and legislative races where a single candidate was on the ballot, the outcome was never in doubt. But blips of resistance did appear in several contests.

In some ways, Assemblyman N. Nick Perry of Brooklyn was the winner of all winners on Nov. 3. He received the highest vote total of anyone running for legislative or executive office: 99.85 percent of the vote in District 58, which covers East Flatbush and part of Canarsie.

While the extent of Perry’s victory was not guaranteed—a few more handfuls of write-in votes in the race and he would have fallen to second-place among all Election 2020 winners in New York City—the outcome was certain from the get-go for he, like 58 other candidates on the ballot in New York City, ran unopposed.

In the lead-up to election day, a City Limits reader reviewing our judicial voters’ guide asked: “If it asks to vote for 3 and there are 3 listed, will all 3 likely get confirmed as judges assuming no write in candidates exceed their totals? Or is it more complicated than that?” Our answer to the second part was, in a word, “No.” It’s not any more complicated than that. An unopposed candidate just needs to get more than any single write-in candidate. And as the chart below demonstrates, the unopposed candidates did not have any trouble doing that.

Those running with no competition included one member of Congress, 10 State Senate candidates, 18 people seeking judicial posts, 29 Assembly hopefuls and one aspiring City Councilmember. Most were Democrats, but a couple of Republicans also enjoyed an easy path to re-election. Most were incumbents but five were newcomers. A few of them were treading a very familiar, suspense-free path: Perry, for one, has not faced a general election opponent since 2006—seven cycles ago—when he had a Conservative rival, whom he defeated in a landslide.

To be sure, these were not the only low-drama elections last week. While a handful of races are awaiting the results of the tally of absentee ballots, most contested races were barely that. In the 12 contested Congressional races that touched the five boroughs last Tuesday, 10 of the winners received more than 60 percent of the vote and seven earned more than three-quarters of the ballots. Most races for lower office were similarly lopsided, whether the dominant Democratic candidate was facing a Republican or someone from a more interesting party, like the candidate from the COVID-19 Stories party, Daniel Maio, whom Assemblyman Andrew Hevesi beat 83 to 16 percent.

Why bother looking at races that were over before they began? The point is not that these candidates did anything wrong; it’s not their fault no party or person stepped up to challenge them. It’s simply this: For better or worse, unopposed candidates and noncompetitive races are a major feature of democracy in New York City—one that should not escape attention amid the understandable focus on the races where outcomes are still in doubt.

What’s more, while no one on this list faced any threat of losing their race, it is interesting to consider the write-in votes, which were minuscule everywhere, but slightly less so in a few races, and wonder what message those voters were trying to send.

To play with this data yourself, please check out the online version of this spreadsheet here.

Body	District	Candidate	Primary party	Incumbent?	Votes received	Vote share	Write-in votes	Write-in share	Total votes
Assembly	58	N. Nick Perry	Democratic	Yes	35737	99.85%	54	0.15%	35791
Assembly	29	Alicia L. Hyndman	Democratic	Yes	36311	99.78%	79	0.22%	36390
Assembly	32	Vivian E. Cook	Democratic	Yes	33694	99.77%	77	0.23%	33771
Assembly	71	Alfred E. Taylor	Democratic	Yes	35520	99.71%	104	0.29%	35624
State Senate	10	James Sanders Jr.	Democratic	Yes	76302	99.69%	241	0.31%	76543
Assembly	60	Charles Barron	Democratic	Yes	32320	99.67%	107	0.33%	32427
State Senate	25	Jabari Brisport	Democratic	No	90347	99.61%	352	0.39%	90699
State Senate	14	Leroy G. Comrie Jr.	Democratic	Yes	85781	99.60%	343	0.40%	86124
Assembly	33	Clyde Vanel	Democratic	Yes	36343	99.59%	151	0.41%	36494
State Senate	21	Kevin S. Parker	Democratic	Yes	92004	99.47%	486	0.53%	92490
State Senate	19	Roxanne J. Persaud	Democratic	Yes	78184	99.45%	431	0.55%	78615
Assembly	52	Jo Anne Simon	Democratic	Yes	45495	99.44%	255	0.56%	45750
Assembly	53	Maritza Davila	Democratic	Yes	30383	99.43%	173	0.57%	30556
Assembly	72	Carmen De La Rosa	Democratic	Yes	31272	99.42%	182	0.58%	31454
City Council	37	Darma V. Diaz	Democratic	No	31010	99.41%	183	0.59%	31193
Assembly	42	Rodneyse Bichotte	Democratic	Yes	31219	99.37%	199	0.63%	31418
Assembly	62	Michael W. Reilly Jr.	Republican	Yes	49313	99.33%	332	0.67%	49645
Congress	5	Gregory W. Meeks	Democratic	Yes	159032	99.29%	1135	0.71%	160167
Assembly	39	Catalina Cruz	Democratic	Yes	16122	99.24%	123	0.76%	16245
State Senate	24	Andrew J. Lanza	Republican	Yes	111611	99.19%	906	0.81%	112517
Assembly	74	Harvey Epstein	Democratic	Yes	31426	99.19%	256	0.81%	31682
Assembly	24	David I. Weprin	Democratic	Yes	24588	99.09%	226	0.91%	24814
Assembly	49	Peter J. Abbate Jr.	Democratic	Yes	13497	99.05%	130	0.95%	13627
Assembly	59	Jaime R. Williams	Democratic	Yes	32332	99.04%	315	0.96%	32647
State Senate	27	Brad M. Hoylman	Democratic	Yes	78799	99.01%	785	0.99%	79584
Assembly	65	Yuh-Line Niou	Democratic	Yes	26871	98.98%	278	1.02%	27149
Assembly	75	Richard N. Gottfried	Democratic	Yes	31781	98.97%	331	1.03%	32112
State Senate	12	Michael N. Gianaris	Democratic	Yes	73827	98.91%	812	1.09%	74639
Assembly	51	Marcela Mitaynes	Democratic	No	22173	98.89%	248	1.11%	22421
Assembly	37	Catherine Nolan	Democratic	Yes	29647	98.89%	334	1.11%	29981
Assembly	30	Brian Barnwell	Democratic	Yes	23897	98.83%	284	1.17%	24181
Assembly	69	Daniel J. O’Donnell	Democratic	Yes	31276	98.81%	377	1.19%	31653
State Senate	16	Toby Ann Stavisky	Democratic	Yes	44974	98.78%	555	1.22%	45529
Assembly	25	Nily D. Rozic	Democratic	Yes	19012	98.77%	236	1.23%	19248
Assembly	45	Steven Cymbrowitz	Democratic	Yes	18259	98.73%	235	1.27%	18494
Assembly	48	Simcha Eichenstein	Democratic	Yes	22293	98.65%	304	1.35%	22597
Assembly	27	Daniel Rosenthal	Democratic	Yes	21719	98.64%	300	1.36%	22019
Assembly	36	Zohran Kwame Mamdani	Democratic	No	27182	98.33%	461	1.67%	27643
State Senate	17	Simcha Felder	Democratic	Yes	64446	97.98%	1331	2.02%	65777
Assembly	50	Emily E. Gallagher	Democratic	No	25390	96.38%	953	3.62%	26343
Assembly	67	Linda B. Rosenthal	Democratic	Yes	33127	95.76%	1468	4.24%	34595