Early Voters On Who They Ranked, And How It Went

"It's super straightforward" [View this email in your browser]( [Keep friends and family informed. Forward the Politics Brief.]( Early Voting Is Underway. Here's What Voters Are Saying So Far. [two voters on the Upper East Side] Scott Lynch/Gothamist Early voting in the New York City primary kicked off at 8 a.m. on Saturday, and by the time polling places closed for the day, nearly 17,000 New Yorkers had cast their vote for the next mayor, comptroller, judges, and more. (Early voting will continue through June 20th; Primary Day is June 22nd.) The team at WNYC/Gothamist fanned out across town to see how voters were experiencing their first citywide ranked-choice election. The major takeaways: the new voting method was easy to figure out, and the possibility of last-minute twists in the final days of the race wasn't a concern. Below is a sample of [what we heard]( [an 18-year-old voter in Queens, with his parents] Brigid Bergin/Gothamist Anil Singh, 18, South Ozone Park "As a young person obviously climate change is very important to me, so I'm really looking for candidates who recognize the threat that it plays. Also, I'm really looking for a candidate who'll tackle crime at its roots and invest in our communities. "I also thought ranked-choice voting made it much better to vote. I ranked Maya Wiley number one, and then Kathryn Garcia followed by Shaun Donovan." [a retired voter in the Bronx] David Cruz/Gothamist Jose Morell, 72, Bronx "I learned [about ranked-choice voting] through the TV commercials, advertising, and all that. It was easy, it was very easy. "I like Shaun, Shaun Donovan. Because I like his story, too. Because he had worked to improve the homeless, the housing. Because I'm an Obama fan. And he worked with Obama a long time ago. I was a volunteer for Obama. And to me he's one of the best presidents we ever had, Obama." [a Brooklyn voter after voting early] Elizabeth Kim/Gothamist Morgan Sasser, Bed-Stuy "I've seen [ranked-choice voting] advertised on Hulu. We got a mailer at home. So we knew all about it. I thought it was super straightforward. "I didn't take advantage of it as much, probably for like most [races], I did one or two. For mayor, Maya Wiley was my first choice and Andrew Yang was my second." [an Upper East Side voter] Scott Lynch/Gothamist Susan Katz, 70, Upper East Side "[Ranked-choice voting] was fine mostly, because I looked at all the 4,000 pieces of literature I've gotten in the past few weeks. "There's only one candidate who has actually managed, and anyone who can run the sanitation department in this city has my vote. That was before the NY Times endorsed [Kathryn Garcia]. Hopefully one of my first three will get there." [Council member Eric Ulrich] Brigid Bergin/Gothamist Eric Ulrich, Term-limited Republican City Councilmember, South Ozone Park "If I was enrolled as a Democrat, which I’m not, and far be it from me to inject myself into Democratic primary politics, but I’d be voting for Eric Adams. He’s the common sense candidate and he’s the only candidate that has a real plan to keep the city safe and also to bring the city together. He seems to be a unifier not a divider and I think he’d do a great job." If you're planning to vote early, we want to hear about it! Did ranked-choice voting go smoothly? Was your polling site prepared? Did you run into crowds? Or are you deliberately planning not to vote early, and to instead wait until Primary Day? Email us at tips@gothamist.com. Gothamist Guides To The 2021 Election [an illustration of a ranked-choice ballot] How To Be A Smarter Ranked-Choice Voter: Do's And Don'ts Rank as many candidates as you can live with. But [don't include the names]( of anyone you really don't want to win. [a graphic of city hall that says "Guide To New York City's 2021 Mayoral Race"] The Complete Guide For Undecided Voters Who's running for mayor. Where their money is coming from. How ranked-choice voting works. Key dates to know. [It's all here](. [a building in Chinatown] Policy Cheat Sheet: Where The Democratic Mayoral Candidates Stand Your [guide]( to the candidates' positions on policing, homelessness, housing, education, parks, bikes, cars, and more. [voting booths in a school gym] Our Guide To All Those Other Races Because judicial elections matter, too, here's [our guide]( to everything on your ballot besides the mayoral contest. Here's What Else Is Happening The latest Democratic mayoral poll from Marist has Eric Adams in the lead, with Kathryn Garcia in second. Maya Wiley and Andrew Yang, the only other candidates to poll in double digits, came in third and fourth, respectively. The poll also gamed out how the election would resolve via ranked-choice voting, and concluded that Adams would win after 12 rounds of whittling it down. ([Politico]( Al Sharpton has opted not to endorse any mayoral candidates for the first time since 1989. After saying last month that he'd announce a decision in June, Sharpton said on Saturday that he's not endorsing any candidates, and instead promoting general turnout and ranked-choice voting. "There’s no one here who’s saying something so egregious that I had to come in and had to stop somebody," he explained. ([Gothamist]( Mayor Bill de Blasio has reportedly been backing Eric Adams behind closed doors. De Blasio, who recently defended Adams during the does-he-actually-live-in-New-Jersey controversy ("Clearly a New Yorker," de Blasio declared), reportedly told prominent union leaders during a private meeting that he wants Adams to be his successor. As of now, the only candidate who's publicly said they'd accept de Blasio's endorsement is Andrew Yang — whom de Blasio vehemently opposes, according to one of the union leaders who met with the mayor. ([The New York Times]( Nearly 12,000 New York City voters registered as Democrats earlier this year during a push to get Republicans to switch parties in time for the primary. Meanwhile, the two GOP primary candidates both said that with crime spiking, they think Democratic voters might cross party lines this fall to rally around a tough-on-crime candidate. ([The Wall Street Journal]( A pair of City Council candidates — one in Brooklyn, the other in eastern Queens — are trying to push two districts much further to the left. Queens activist Jaslin Kaur and Brooklyn tenant organizer Michael Hollingsworth, both of whom have been endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America, are trying to take over seats being vacated by term-limited centrist incumbents. ([Gothamist]( Manhattan District Attorney candidate Tali Farhadian Weinstein recently dumped $8.2 million of her own money into her campaign. Weinstein has now spent $11.18 per voter on ads and mailers, a figure that's seven times as much as any other candidate in the race, raising flags among good government groups that she's trying to buy the position. ([Gothamist]( A lot of people are running for the five borough president positions! Donovan Richards, the Queens borough president, is the only incumbent in any of the six primary races (Staten Island has primaries for both Republicans and Democrats) — all the others are being term-limited out of office at the end of this year. Here's a handy borough-by-borough breakdown of who's running, who's endorsing who, and how much money each candidate raised. ([City & State]( [the logo for The United States of Anxiety] David Dinkins Vs. The NYPD With Democratic mayoral candidates once again debating how to balance crime-fighting with police reform, The United States of Anxiety looks back at how the city's first Black mayor tried to change the NYPD — and met vicious resistance from the police union. Support WNYC + Gothamist Make a donation to support local, independent journalism. Your contributions are our largest source of funding and pays for essential election coverage and more. [Donate]( Copyright © 2021 New York Public Radio, All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: New York Public Radio 160 Varick Street New York, NY 10013 [unsubscribe]( [update preferences]( [privacy policy](