Check back all day for election updates. This story was last updated at 5:15 p.m.
Voting is officially underway and candidates are out making their last-ditch efforts to increase their chances of victory for today’s New York City primaries.
According to the NYC Board of Elections (BOE), as of 3 p.m. today there had been 110,175 total voting check-ins citywide, including during the early voting period.
| Manhattan | 25,316 |
| Bronx | 18,085 |
| Brooklyn | 31,883 |
| Queens | 34,891 |
| Staten Island | Zero (no election) |
Polls are open until 9 p.m. tonight.
Bronx candidates have been campaigning around the borough today as part of the home stretch of the election.
At the Greek American Institute at 3753 Bruckner Blvd. in the Pelham Bay section this afternoon, Bronx District Attorney candidate Tess Cohen, along with her husband, handed out flyers encouraging voters to check the box next to her name.
Cohen was standing near a sign that said “no electioneering” when talking with prospective voters and during an interview with the Bronx Times. According to the BOE, electioneering, which includes soliciting votes and distributing campaign materials, is prohibited within 100 feet of the polling site entrance.
She’s running against incumbent Darcel Clark for the post — the first time in the position’s 109-year history that two women will battle it out for the Democratic nomination. There is no Republican candidate this year.
Cohen told the Bronx Times she felt good about her run this afternoon.
“We’re proud of everything that we’ve accomplished, organizing folks in the Bronx who are excited for change to the criminal justice system here,” she said.
The challenger said one of her main platforms has to do with resource allocation.
“I think the most important issue is making sure that people in the Bronx are getting the same resources that all the other boroughs get that prevent crime,” Cohen said. “People understand that we are getting left behind when it comes to making sure that we’re addressing the reasons why people commit crimes, and voters care about that.”
She said she started campaigning at around 6:15 a.m. today, and plans to keep at it until the polls close tonight.
City Council District 13
Marjorie Velázquez staffers are also campaigning around Council District 13, which is home to arguably the most contentious race in the Bronx of the day. Earlier today at the Bronx House at 990 Pelham Parkway, a polling site in District 13, an election official ushered away a Velázquez truck with staffers that were electioneering for her outside of the location.
The incumbent is seeking reelection after her first two-year term on the City Council, but it’s not going to come without a fight. Velázquez is facing Bernadette Ferrara, Irene Estrada and John Perez on the Democratic side, and, if victorious, will face the winner of Kristy Marmorato, Hasime “Samantha” Zherka and George Havranek on the Republican side.
District 13 encompasses the neighborhoods of Throggs Neck, Pelham Bay, Van Nest, City Island and Morris Park.
Velázquez bested her Republican challenger Aleksander Mici for the District 13 seat in the 2021 general election — after an unsuccessful bid for the seat in 2017.
Perhaps the most controversial issue in Velázquez’s district throughout her first term, and likely her tallest hurdle toward reelection, is the Bruckner Boulevard rezoning proposal — which she encouraged her council colleagues to approve during a full vote last fall after flipping on her long-held stance in opposition of the project. The rezoning project is slated to bring 349 apartments, including 168 designated as affordable units, to Bruckner Boulevard in Throggs Neck — an area with low density growth management zoning.
Helen Siegel, a voter who showed up to cast her ballot at the Bronx House at 990 Pelham Parkway in District 13 earlier today, told the Bronx Times she’s most concerned with immigration, city finances and crime. She said she feels like a lot of government programming and funding is being allocated toward immigrants and asylum seekers, but that meanwhile they “cut my social security down.”
“It’s very upsetting,” Siegel said, noting that she’s lived in the area for 40 years. “And the crime and the graffiti is unbelievable.”
She said she wasn’t sure who she was going to vote for in the Democratic Primary, but that she definitely had made up her mind against Velázquez.
City Council District 14
In neighboring District 14, which includes the Kingsbridge, Fordham, University Heights, Mount Eden and Mount Hope sections, City Council incumbent Pierina Sanchez faces one challenger in the Democratic primary — northwest Bronx resident Rachel Bradshaw.
In an interview with the Bronx Times this afternoon, Bradshaw said she thinks she has a 50-50 shot against the current councilmember.
“I am quite honored that I was such a big threat,” the challenger said. “(Sanchez) had to really, really campaign, and so what that shows me is that she was very scared for her seat.”
For Sanchez, this year’s primary is a less crowded field than in 2021, when she had to overcome five other Democrats in the primary for a chance at the District 14 seat. With the support of the Bronx Dems, Sanchez secured her spot on the council for the first time two years ago.
While both the incumbent and her challenger said housing is a key issue to their campaigns, their approaches differ. Sanchez said she’s working to expand the supply of housing vouchers, increase affordable housing options, and crack down on “bad” landlords who neglect tenants and properties — while Bradshaw is looking to more strictly regulate homeless shelters and increase rent to ownership opportunities for Bronx residents.
There was quite a large Sanchez presence outside of the MS 390 early voting location in District 14 last week — people were playing music under a tent surrounded by large campaign posters, and staffers were posted up around the whole block. Although there was less turnout for the Bradshaw campaign, the rivalry between the two Democrats was palpable.
Most of Sanchez’s staffers did not speak to the Bronx Times last week, although one said the incumbent has some momentum.
“People know her because she does a lot of events in the community,” said the staffer, who did not provide her name.
The site coordinator for the MS 390 location, similar to the poll workers in District 13, said early voting had taken “a low start.” There were 45 voters total the first day and 27 the second day, the coordinator said, which is worse than usual.
But on the other hand, the coordinator said they hope the experience was a positive one for the few people who do show up to vote early.
“We’re always hopeful. We want to have a site that’s exciting and customer-service oriented,” the coordinator said. “It’s very fast, no lines, you’re in and out in five minutes.”
Another contested election in the Bronx today include the City Council District 12 Primary between incumbent Kevin Riley — who took over for the disgraced ex-councilmember Andy King after he was kicked off the council in 2020. Riley faces challengers Aisha Ahmed and Pamela Hamilton-Johnson.
Early voter turnout
According to preliminary data from the New York City Board of Elections Monday, just 44,611 New Yorkers — or 1.3% of the city’s registered voters — had checked in to cast their votes during the early voting period, which ended on Sunday.
The Bronx generally lags behind other boroughs in terms of voter turnout. The borough only saw 19% of eligible voters make it to the polls for the 2021 primary, which included a mayoral race, and ranked last place for the 2022 General Election. And poll workers in District 13 told the Bronx Times last week during the early voting period that the competitive race hasn’t changed that. They said they were still seeing low turnout.
The poll workers, who declined to provide their names, seemed dismayed by not only the low early voter turnout, but also what they’re calling a shortage of coverage from the news media about preliminary voting. From their point of view, it wasn’t so much an issue of voter complacency as it was a general lack of information.
Dorian Fulvio, a District 13 voter, told the Bronx Times last week that climate change is the issue she keeps closest to her when casting her ballot each election cycle. She said she was only active in national elections until 2016, when Donald Trump beat Hillary Clinton, but has since made it a point to participate in local elections.
However, Fulvio’s husband, who declined to give his name, said he has one major issue with local elections — and that’s accessible information. He said the official New York City Board of Elections website isn’t as user-friendly as he would like, noting that finding voting information and polling locations is difficult.
Ranked-choice voting
This year’s races that aren’t boroughwide contests will implement ranked-choice voting (RVC), which voters in the five boroughs overwhelmingly approved through a citywide ballot measure in 2019.
Under ranked-choice, voters can rank up to five candidates — with number one being their top pick and number five their bottom choice. The candidate who captures the majority of top-ranked votes comes out on top.
Once all of the ballots are in and counted, if a candidate receives 50% of the vote in the first round, they automatically win the race. But if no contender reaches a majority of first-place ballots in round one, the contest goes to additional stages of vote tallying.
— ET Rodriguez, Emily Swanson, Robbie Sequeira and Emily Forgash contributed to this report
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