NYC primary election voting underway as low turnout expected

New Yorkers headed to their polling places in a trickle Tuesday morning to cast ballots in this year’s unusual primary election — an early sign that seemed to confirm the widely-held expectation that the contest will be a low-turnout affair.

The polls opened at 6 a.m. and will admit voters who get in line by 9 p.m.

New Yorkers who aren’t sure where to vote can use this poll site locator from the city Board of Elections.

Elections typically take place every four years in the city. Tuesday’s primaries — which come just two years after the 2021 citywide elections — are being held because of last year’s City Council map redistricting, which necessitated the atypical off-year cycle.

Most of the Council’s 51 seats are up for grabs, as are the offices of the Queens and Bronx district attorneys. Citywide posts like the mayor are not up for reelection until 2025.

The off-year timing is likely to result in low turnout. Just 44,600 people participated in early voting between June 17 and June 25 — averaging less than 5,000 ballots per day in an election where slightly more than 2.8 million people are eligible to vote.

According to the Board of Elections, another 65,657 voters cast ballots in the first nine hours of polls being open Tuesday.

“If this was the presidential election, this place would be packed with people,” a Board of Elections coordinator told the Daily News in the early afternoon after just a few dozen voters had cast ballots at the PS 185 poll site in Harlem where she was working.

The coordinator, who spoke on condition of anonymity as she was not authorized to talk to the press, expressed disbelief at the low turnout.

“People don’t know that local elections are what really matter,” she said. “This is for your area. This is for your neighborhood and to get people to represent you, for your neighborhood, to get you what you need.”

Another unusual element this year is the ranked-choice voting system.

Used for the first time in the 2021 elections, the system allows voters to rank candidates in order of preference in races where there are more than two contenders.

If no one secures a simple majority of votes from the No. 1 ranks, the candidate with the least support is eliminated. The No. 2 picks on ballots cast for the eliminated candidate are then added to the mix until a single candidate nets a majority of votes and is dubbed the victor.

The convoluted tabulation system is time-consuming, and results from races where it ends up being used may take days to ascertain.

A vast majority of Tuesday’s races feature incumbents who are likely to breeze to victory as they face no credible challengers.

One of those is Councilwoman Carmen De La Rosa, who represents Washington Heights.

In her district, voters showed up in dribs and drabs at the PS 187 polling place. Over an hour stretch Tuesday morning, The News observed less than two dozen voters walk in to cast ballots.

Ann Coutsoubinas, a retired public school teacher, said she voted for De La Rosa — but her backing seemed grudging at best.

“Things are not going well, period,” said Coutsoubinas, 85, who directed most of her ire at Mayor Adams for backing a plan to revamp the health benefits city retirees are entitled to.

“He screwed me. I’m a retired teacher,” Coutsoubinas added of the mayor, adding that she’s been “on the phone every day” trying to make sense of the changes, which are now being disputed in court. “That’s the only issue I’m facing.”

When asked about the Council’s role, she implored De La Rosa and her colleagues “to turn this whole thing around.”

Robin Blum, 73, said she also put De La Rosa at the top of her rankings — and then some.

“I ranked her first, second and third,” she said. “I hope that doesn’t matter.”

Despite what appears to be relatively smooth sailing for candidates like De La Rosa, there are notable exceptions, including the battle for Harlem’s 9th Council District.

The 9th District is currently represented by democratic socialist Councilwoman Kristin Richardson Jordan. But she announced abruptly last month that she wouldn’t seek reelection.

Her exit created a vacuum that her three challengers — criminal justice advocate Yusef Salaam, Assemblywoman Inez Dickens and Assemblyman Al Taylor — have seized on.

Underscoring the high stakes of the race, Mayor Adams publicly announced his support for Dickens’ campaign earlier this month, the only Council endorsement he’s offered in this cycle. There is no Republican primary in the 9th.

Salaam, known for being wrongfully convicted and then exonerated in the 1989 “Central Park Five” rape case, has together with Dickens emerged as the front-runners of the race.

Dickens, a longtime fixture of Harlem politics, has accused Salaam of having no relevant experience and knocked him for only recently moving back to New York from Georgia.

Speaking outside of a poll site on 112th St. Tuesday afternoon, Salaam countered that a “lack of experience in politics is a great thing.”

“But lack of experience in the struggle for our people will be even more detrimental. The fact that I have been fighting for justice, for freedom, for equality for the past 34 years, because of this case. I mean, I was 15 years old when I was run over by the spiked wheels of justice,” he said, referencing his wrongful conviction. “And here I am now taking that same platform and turn it in into a purpose, trying to take my pain and doing something about it.”

The only other vacant seat being fought for Tuesday is Brooklyn’s 43rd Council District, which was deliberately redrawn last year in a way meant to maximize representation for southern Brooklyn’s Asian American constituencies. Running to get the Democratic nomination there are senior center executive Wai Yee Chan, local businessman Stanley Ng and Susan Zhuang, chief of staff to state Assemblyman Bill Colton. On the GOP side, community activist Yin Tag is squaring off against Vito LaBella, a retired NYPD lieutenant who has the Brooklyn Republican Party’s support.

There are also a handful of other competitive Council elections in Brooklyn, the Bronx and Queens, where incumbent Democrats are facing more moderate challengers. Among them is Bronx Councilwoman Marjorie Velazquez, who’s facing a competitive primary and is likely to face a credible Republican challenger in November’s general election if she prevails Tuesday.

Velazquez said Tuesday she’s “confident” she’d get through her primary opponent, local Community Board chair Bernadette Ferrara, and eventually, the general election.

She was chatting up voters outside what’s traditionally been the busiest polling place in her eastern Bronx district, MS 105.

“Turnout’s a bit low,” Velazquez said, blaming the on-and-off rain and the lack of any citywide races. “It’s moving, but not what we’ve seen in previous years.”

Other candidates facing competitive races offered similarly rosy predictions.

Tony Avella, a former state senator and City Council member, is running in the Democratic primary against Christopher Bae, a prosecutor in the Queens DA’s office, and Paul Graziano, a land-use specialist, for the opportunity to face off against incumbent Councilwoman Vickie Paladino, a Republican, who’s running unopposed in the primary for her Queens Council seat.

Avella, who campaigned in Whitestone on Tuesday, told The News his run was “going very well” into the home stretch and that he’s “looking forward to beating Vickie Paladino in November.”

Incumbent Councilman Charles Barron, a Democrat who represents East New York in Brooklyn, was at his Vermont Street campaign office getting ready to make the rounds at polling sites Tuesday morning.

He’s facing primary challenges from Jamilah Rose, a grant writer, and Chris Banks, a community leader.

“We’ve done what we’re supposed to do as a campaign. We’ve earned the right to win, and we will win,” he said, adding that he’s not too concerned if the contest turns out to be a nail biter.

“I don’t care,” he said. “My goal is to win by one vote. My goal is to get one more vote than my opponent.”