The 735,317 New Yorkers who voted early have done their duty, now close to twice as many have to get out there today and decide who will be the next mayor of this city. The total could reach 2 million, a first since the 1960s, showing the intense interest in this contest.
Too often the general election in this city is a meaningless afterthought, the real decision having been made in the primary. But not this year; this general election matters.
We have strongly endorsed Andrew Cuomo over Zohran Mamdani and urge our neighbors to do the same. Tonight, either Cuomo or Mamdani will win. It is a binary choice. Don’t waste your time or your vote for any other candidate, they are just spoilers.
Cuomo would be a solid mayor, he knows how to run a run a government, balance a budget and deliver big, from gay marriage to justice for victims of childhood sexual abuse to the Second Ave. subway and a new LaGuardia Airport.
Mamdani is young (and untested) but his ideas are old: free, free, free and tax, tax, tax, along with decriminalizing the world’s oldest profession, prostitution, and another very old idea, antisemitism, which seeps in from his incessant focus on Israel being the cause of all the ills of the world. Why would he say: “When the boot of the NYPD is on your neck, it’s been laced by the IDF” unless he is obsessed with his enmity towards Israel?
What Mamdani won’t say is where he stands on three critical questions on the back of the ballot to spur the construction of achingly needed new housing across the five boroughs. The Daily News and Cuomo say vote YES on Proposals 2, 3, and 4. Mamdani has been asked and asked and asked and he only smiles and repeats his slogans about buses and child care and rent freezes that he can’t make good on.
That’s the worst of old style politics and New Yorkers should reject it with overwhelming YES votes on 2, 3 and 4.
The huge numbers from early voting means that New Yorkers are being heard, which strengthens our democracy and means the loudest voices belong to the people in the middle, not ideologues at the extremes that dominate primaries. On the final day of early balloting, Sunday, 151,212 citizens voted, exceeding the highest day ever for early voting in New York City, including last year’s presidential race.
Sunday morning the flow was 15,200 an hour, but by the early afternoon it had climbed to 19,200 an hour. In the later afternoon it was 20,500 an hour and the final hour was 24,200. And they kept coming, with some who got there seeing long lines and leaving. In that case, vote today, from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m., at your regular polling place, which is probably closer to your home.
As we said last week, the early voting was running at twice the rate from the June Democratic primary between Cuomo and Mamdani and if that model we outlined held it would mean breaking the 2-million vote mark. Our projection is right on track and it’s a worthy goal to aim for.
Get out there today and vote. The future of our city is in the balance and it’s up to you and your neighbors.
