NYC Primary Rewind: Who Voted, Where

In New York City, 446,432 Democrats and 50,337 Republican cast ballots for governor on Tuesday—a sleepy election day during a redistricting year that’ll ask voters to return to the polls in August for a second primary.

Above: Scenes from the June primary in New York City. Photos by Adi Talwar.

In New York City, 446,432 Democrats and 50,337 Republicans cast ballots for governor on Tuesday—a sleepy election day during a redistricting year that’ll ask voters to return to the polls in August for a second primary.

That’s 496,769 votes in the five boroughs, significantly less than the number of city residents—941,566—who showed up to the polls for the last gubernatorial primary in September 2018. “I don’t think I have seen voter turnout this low in a Democratic primary in Brooklyn before,” State Sen. Julia Salazar said on Twitter early Wednesday.

“Nobody cares. The people don’t vote. Only for the president, the people vote a little more,” 65-year-old Gilberto Gil said while voting Tuesday at P.S. 85 in the Fordham neighborhood of The Bronx. He makes a point to vote in every election and plans to return for the second state primary in August, when candidates for State Senate and Congress will be on the ballot.

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“I found myself to be the first one I think—I don’t think there was anybody else in there voting,” said Perla Hernandez, who voted at a quiet P.S. 094 poll site in Norwood Tuesday.

Incumbent Kathy Hochul earned a just over 60 percent of votes from the city’s Democrats, and she also easily won statewide. While Congressman Lee Zeldin garnered the most votes across the state to earn the Republican ballot spot in November’s general election, the party’s voters in the five boroughs cast more ballots for candidate Andrew Giuliani, who was no doubt buoyed by name recognition (the younger Giuliani conceded to Zeldin at a primary night party in Manhattan, with his former-mayor father by his side).

Queens and Staten Island had the highest turnout for Republican voters, while Democrats came out in the biggest numbers in Brooklyn and Manhattan, according to NYCBOE preliminary data.

“Definitely don’t want no Republican in November, so that’s why I just stuck with Hochul,” Adrienne Black, 64, told City Limits while casting a ballot in The Bronx. She liked Hochul-challenger and NYC Public Advocate Jumaane Williams too, she said, but worried he “might not have a chance” up against the incumbent.

James and Eva Rivera cast their ballots at P.S. 008 in the Norwood neighborhood of The Bronx, where they said they’ve been voting in elections for the last 37 years. Eva told City Limits she was motivated to vote by civic duty. “If you don’t vote, it don’t count,” she said.

James was driven to the polls by a more specifically partisan reason: “The lying Republicans,” he quipped, prompting an elbow in the ribs from Eva.

You can watch their full interview below, and find more conversations with primary day voters on the City Limits’ YouTube page.