NEW YORK, Nov 05 (APP): New Yorkers are flocking to the polls on Tuesday to elect a new mayor amid the city’s most closely watched election, in which Zohan Mamdani, the Democratic Party’s nominee, is the frontrunner.
By this afternoon (around 11 PM PST), about 1.2 million people, including early voters, had cast ballots to decide the hotly contested race between Mamdani and former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, running as an independent candidate, as well as Curtis Sliwa, the Republican Party nominee.
The polls will close at 9 PM local time (6 AM PST Wednesday).
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump has endorsed Cuomo, who resigned a couple of years ago after a barrage of sexual harassment charges against him, made a last-minute appeal to the City jews, saying any Jewish person who votes for Zohran Mamdani would be a “stupid person”
The outcome of this race has the potential to reshape the longstanding power structures in the city and to send a message nationally about the direction of the Democratic Party after its disastrous defeat in the presidential election last year. It comes amid a collision of local and national forces, including escalating deportation odd immigrants, increasing political polarization and economic angst over the cost of living.
The campaign has also drawn tremendous interest from around the world, in part because Mamdani, a Muslim, would be an unexpected choice for a city regarded as the capital of capitalism in the United States. He is a 34-year-old democratic socialist who seeks to tax the wealthy to finance expansive new social programmes and who is highly critical of Israel and its recent war in Gaza. He would also be the first Muslim to hold the office.
In the first six hours of voting on Tuesday, about 460,000 New Yorkers cast ballots, the City Board of Elections said. Added to the 735,000 who voted early, nearly 1.20 million votes have now been cast, more than the final turnout of 1.15 million in 2021, when incumbent Eric Adams defeated Curtis Sliwa.
At some point after the polls close, a victor will almost certainly emerge from among the top three contenders to succeed Adams, who dropped out of the race.
In the five months since the Democratic primary in June, the three men have jockeyed for position, but their respective standing in the polls has remained largely static. Mamdani, a democratic socialist, remains in first place, followed by Cuomo, who was defeated in the Democratic primary, and then Republican Sliwa.
Tuesday’s vote will determine whether that dynamic holds or is somehow upended. Turnout expectations are high. More than 735,000 people cast ballots during the early voting period that concluded Sunday evening, more than four times the number who voted early in the 2021 contest.
All three will wrap up the evening with election watch parties attended by both die-hard supporters and reporters.
Mamdani said at his polling place that he would vote yes on the housing proposals on the ballot, which fast-track affordable housing projects and shift some power over their approval from the City Council to the mayor’s office. It is a question he had avoided taking a position on.
APP/ift