NYC Mayoral Primary: where do I vote?
Tomorrow NYC residents will head to the polls for one of the most contested mayoral primaries in recent history. Our team took a look at how to find your polling place.
Tomorrow, 22 June, is the New York City's Mayoral Primary Election. Republicans, Democrats, and Independents will have the chance to vote for the candidate they would like to see face-off in the General Election this November.
Polling places are scattered all around the city. New Yorkers can find their polling station by visiting the Find My Poll Site website, which will ask them for their physical address and point them in the direction of their polling station.
NYC Primary Election Basics
The mayoral race is one of the most important measures voters will take into consideration this year. Mayor Bill De Blasio has reached his term limits and will not be able to seek reelection. Although New York City is predominantly a liberal city, it has elected Republican mayors in the last few decades, including Rudy Giuliani and billionaire Michael Bloomberg.
The purpose of the Primary Elections is to allow party members to pick a nominee for the general election.
NYC holds what is known as a closed primary, which means that only voters registered with one of the “qualified political parties” can vote in the primary for their party. This means that registered Democrats will vote for the Democratic candidate they would like to see on the ballot in November, and Republicans will do the same for their own party.
What are the qualified political parties?
Six qualified parties will take part in this year’s election in November. However, for the primary, voters from the Conservative Party of New York, Libertarian Party, and Working Families Party have already selected the candidate that will appear on the ballot this fall.
Registered Democrats, Republicans, and voters who do not belong to a specific party will take part in the primary tomorrow to select their nominees.
The most closely watched mayoral primary belongs to the Democrats, where local and national stars have put their hate in the race.
What do the most recent polls say about the election?
After the 2016 election, many in the US are hesitant to put all their trust in election polls. However, they are one tool that can evaluate where the race stands.
For the Democratic Party, the most recent leader in the polls is Eric Adams, who currently serves as the Brooklyn Borough President. Adams has a long record of public service, including serving as the State Senator for New York’s 20th district from 2007 through 2013.
Behind him are three candidates where polls show a close race. These candidates include Dianne Morales, who is the former CEO of a social services NGO. Maya Wiley, a professor at NYC’s New School, and former Presidential candidate Andrew Yang.
As for the Republicans, there are only two major candidates: Fernando Mateo, the founder of the New York State Federation of Taxi Drivers, and Curtis Sliwa, a radio talk show host and founder of Guardian Angels. Guardian Angels is an organization that aims to prevent violent crime in the city.
An Emerson College poll taken between June 7 and 8 found that Sliwa was leading by five points but that forty percent of voters had not yet made up their mind.