Polls close in NYC primaries for City Council, DAs

Tuesday’s unusual primary elections drew limited voter turnout in New York City.

As of the evening, the Board of Elections estimated that, when accounting for votes coming in that day, through early voting and via absentee ballot, only about 165,000 people had cast ballots out of slightly more than 2.8 million people eligible to vote in this election. That number is sure to go up once all votes are counted, but it served as an early indicator that relatively few people went to their city polling places Tuesday.

There were primaries for all 51 Council seats, but with most considered a lock for the incumbents, all eyes were on about a dozen local battles, along with contested district attorney slots in Queens and the Bronx.

While the Council will almost certainly maintain a Democratic majority after this November’s general election, Tuesday’s primary will pave the way for two new members — one in Harlem’s 9th District and another in Brooklyn’s 43rd.

In the Harlem district, incumbent Councilwoman Kristin Richardson Jordan bowed out of the race months ago, leaving it up for grabs to her competitors — Assemblymembers Inez Dickens and Al Taylor and Yusef Salaam, who’s most well-known for being wrongfully convicted in the 1989 “Central Park Five” rape case.

Since there’s no Republican running for that seat, the winner of Tuesday’s primary is expected to assume the job come next year.

Salaam and Dickens have both emerged as front-runners in the race, but as of Tuesday evening, it was too early to tell which of the three candidates would prevail.

Dickens, a longtime fixture of Harlem politics who locked down endorsements from both Mayor Adams and Rep. Adriano Espaillat, conceded that Salaam may have greater name recognition than her. But she suggested such an advantage only extends outside of the city and attacked him for his lack of political experience and not living in the district for years.

“He was not here during the pandemic,” Dickens said. “He was not here during the time that thousands of people died. He was not here while we had the closing of so many small businesses. And now he has returned after what, 15 years or so? So there’s been a big change.”

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

“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 turning it in into a purpose, trying to take my pain and doing something about it.”

In southern Brooklyn’s 43rd District, which was deliberately redrawn last year as part of redistricting to maximize representation for the area’s Asian-American constituencies, there are primaries on both the Democratic and Republican sides.

In the Democratic contest, there’s Susan Zhuang, chief of staff to Assemblyman William Colton; Wai Yee Chan, a former staffer to Brannan; and Stanley Ng, who has pushed to keep testing for specialized high schools as the sole measure for admitting students.

The Republicans running are Ying Tan, who’s argued the city’s right-to-shelter law and sanctuary city status should be rolled back, and Vito LaBella, an ex-cop who’s best known for slagging off the borough he’s running in.

The races for district attorney in Queens and the Bronx are expected to end where they began — with the incumbents holding onto their respective perches.

In Queens, incumbent DA Melinda Katz is facing off against George Grasso, a former cop and judge who’s attacked her for being soft on criminals, and Devian Daniels, a public defender who’s running to the left of Katz with an emphasis on alternatives to incarceration. While Katz, who won Mayor Adams’ endorsement in the contest, is expected to win, this political battle is regarded as the more likely of the two DA races to end in an upset.

In the Bronx, incumbent DA Darcel Clark is up against Tess Cohen, a defense attorney who’s criticized Clark for not doing enough to transform Rikers Island.

All of the contests in Tuesday’s election were characterized by low voter turnout, a reality politicos and voters both attributed to the lack of any contest for a citywide office like mayor, as well as the rainy conditions.

“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.”

The odd timing of the election will also most likely figure into the low turnout.

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.

Another factor worth keeping in mind this year is the ranked-choice voting system.

Used for the first time in the 2021 elections, RCV, as it’s sometimes called, 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, a Democrat 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 Daily 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.

Aside for the battle in Harlem’s 9th Council District and Brooklyn’s 43rd, 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 in 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 past 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.

Incumbent Councilman Charles Barron, a Democrat who represents East New York, 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,” Barron 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.”