Hell Gate's Election Day Live Blog

Election Day is finally here—and what a ride this election season's been.

But even after all of the sturm und drang of the months since Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani defeated disgraced former Governor Andrew Cuomo in a stunning primary victory—to recap, Cuomo, displaying a remarkable capacity for self-flagellation, deciding to run as an independent; our current (also disgraced) mayor insisting he too would run as an independent, only to drop his reelection bid; a total billionaire freakout; and a last-minute turn toward naked racism and Islamophobia—we have Mamdani maintaining a fairly comfortable lead in the polls (and seemingly having the time of his life).

Excuse us for this (brief) moment of sincerity, but history will be made tonight—the greatest city in the world will, by all indications, soon enough be led by a democratic socialist, at a time when all of the bulwarks are crumbling.

There will be a lot to say in the coming days (and we'll be saying it—a special episode of the Hell Gate Podcast will be dropping tomorrow) but for now, Hell Gate's live blog will be humming all day as our reporters fan out across the city to talk to voters.

And don't forget: Tonight, from 8 p.m. to 10:30 p.m., Hell Gate will go LIVE on our YouTube channel for coverage of the general election. Your hosts in the studio will break down the results in real time, and kick it to our reporters in the field. We'll take you to the election night parties for Zohran Mamdani, Andrew Cuomo, and Curtis Sliwa, with the delightful amount of chaos—and surprises—that comes with doing it all live. You won't want to miss it! Want to watch it with your fellow New Yorkers? You can find a list of bars that will be playing our livestream here.

UPDATE: 6:17 p.m.

OK one last update, with Mayor Adams giving his thoughts on the election, what's next for him ("When you climb a mountain, you don't just sit on the mountain. You look for the next mountain to climb.") and why he'll enjoy leaving the "fishbowl" of his current existence.

UPDATE 5:18 P.M.

What does everyone's favorite New York City election data whisperer predict the result will be tonight?

Michael will be a special guest on Hell Gate's election night livestream, which kicks off tonight at 8 p.m.—be sure to tune in to hear more from him, other special guests, and Hell Gate's own anchors and reporters.

You can watch it here (bookmark it now).

And on that note, the live blog is now closed (we know the polls don't close 'til 9 p.m., but we have a livestream to produce). Thanks for joining us, and godspeed and good luck to us all!

UPDATE 5:09 P.M. | West 73rd Street and Columbus Avenue

Intuiting that I might hear from an interesting split of Mamdani and Cuomo voters on the Upper West Side, I hit a polling site on West 73rd and immediately greeted an elderly woman who declined to say who she voted for or what her name was, and urged me to not write anything down while we spoke to her.

"Something very troubling is happening in this city and in this country," she said, ominously. I was puzzled—did that mean she had voted for Cuomo? Was Mamdani the troubling thing? 

"I don't want to say," she said, making intense eye contact.

A man named Peter Shaw walked by with his dog, and said, "I voted for the man: Mamdani." 

"Old, white, greedy men have fucked this country up," he said of Cuomo and, by extension, President Trump. "I want them all out. I want all the old people out."

After a lengthy discourse on the state of corporate media in the country ("Fuck ABC!" Fuck CBS!") Shaw departed, and a woman from the polling site wearing a fur coat told me that I had to move further down the block. We politely but firmly argued that the rule requiring campaign staff to stand 100 feet away from the polling site applied to electioneering, not the press, but soon, an NYPD officer was summoned, and I again pleaded my case. The NYPD officer thanked me and then left me alone.

An 85-year-old man in a wheelchair named Ralph was pushed out of the polling site by his health aide. "I voted for Mamdani because all of my friends on the Upper West Side voted for him," Ralph said. "I think he's cute too, but that's not why I voted for him," he added, prompting a laugh from his aide.

Needing to head back downtown, I walked east on 73rd and ran into a bunch of media trucks. What was happening? Ah, it was just the fourth estate preparing for Curtis Sliwa's victory party, which is being held at a bar on the same block.

—Christopher Robbins

UPDATE 4:59 P.M. | Corona, Queens

In Corona, Queens, on Tuesday afternoon, a steady stream of young voters walked up the steps of the Florence E. Smith Community Center. In 2024, this neighborhood's voters lurched rightward, part of a larger Latine shift toward Donald Trump. 

But 26-year-old Jesus Salas, who voted for Mamdani, attributed that shift to the knock-on effects of the pandemic. He felt many in his larger community were living their lives on social media, and not interacting with one another. 

The Trump administration, and the threats it poses to immigrant communities, has gotten people talking to one another, he said. 

"People are having real concerns and seeing each other as people again," said Salas. Never someone who paid close attention to politics, he had never voted in an election before this year's primary, when he started following the mayoral race. 

It was then, he said, that "I fully figured out how important my vote was, and how I needed to really look at the issues impacting my community." Salas added, "Zohran's proposals, they're not the most unrealistic. They seem really simple and that they can actually help."

Twenty-two-year-old Mike, who didn't want to give his last name, was voting in his first election ever as well. He voted for Mamdani, he said, because "the attitude is what matters," even if he didn't agree with the candidate on every issue. "He speaks to working-class people, and I don't care if that makes billionaires upset. If they want to leave? I'm OK with that." 

Like elsewhere in the city, voting preferences broke down by age. One older Latine voter (he declined to give his name) told Hell Gate that he was voting for Cuomo because "he was the governor."

Another older voter, who said to call her Ms. Cynthia, said she was voting "for the candidate who ran the cleanest campaign, without smears." She said that was Cuomo, before she jetted off on her scooter. 

Another new voter, 24-year-old Jason Reyes, said that younger voters weren't being outlandish in voting for the democratic socialist: "People know he can only do so much. If he gets only half of his agenda through, that would be huge." 

Reyes thought that in 2024's presidential election, voters in the area were judging Biden, not getting behind Trump. "There's a lot of activism against Trump right now," he said, "and people see themselves in Mamdani." 

—Max Rivlin-Nadler

UPDATE 4:33 P.M. | Flatbush, Brooklyn

I swear that I was doggedly trying to speak to the Cuomo voters of Flatbush. They are very much out there, but on Tuesday afternoon, they didn't want to talk to me. I'm ready to coin the term "Cuomo shame": Not even a Cuomo electioneer handing out Cuomo pamphlets outside the Brooklyn Public Library polling site was voting for him. That man, who declined to give his name, wasn't voting at all, actually. "Ain't none of them no good," he said. "Let God deal with it."

On the other hand, a 54-year-old Mamdani voter and childcare provider named Susan St. Bernard was fired up about affordability and Trump. "The whole place is a mess, the president is a mess. This man is interfering with federal law," she told me. "What are we, the people, doing about that?" She said she wants to give Mamdani a chance, and hopes that she cast her vote for the right person. "Let's see what this guy does," she said, adding that she voted for the affordable housing ballot proposals that the City Council has decried, though she says her councilmember Rita Joseph "did help me a lot." She doesn't like that under the current system, affordable housing comes down to "who knows who, who's pushing who."

Climate justice lawyer Jacob Metz-Lerman found the ballot proposals confusing. "I'm all for affordable housing," he said, "I just couldn't figure out exactly how some of those initiatives came out." He voted yes on Proposition 2, but thought the others gave the mayor too much power and that the language was too vague and could be easily abused. He saw that most climate advocates in the Adirondacks haven't opposed Proposition 1, so he voted for it. For mayor, he said, "you probably can tell I'm out here voting for Zohran."

—Adlan Jackson

UPDATE 4:24 P.M.

Hey Chuck! As one of the top Democratic Party officials in New York and the country, you voted for the Democratic Party nominee for mayor of New York City, right?

Right?

UPDATE 3:44 P.M. | Dongan Hills and New Dorp, Staten Island

What a beautiful Election Day to be on Staten Island, where the fall leaves rivaled the Adirondacks and a gentle breeze gently buoyed the multitudes of American (and Jets) flags on manicured lawns! In the Dongan Hills and New Dorp neighborhoods, 75 percent of voters cast their ballots for Curtis Sliwa to be mayor of New York City in 2021. But today, there was nary a Sliwa voter to be found. 

Is it because President Donald Trump warned this week that a vote for the Republican candidate would be a vote for democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani? Nadia, 45, a registered Republican voting at the St. Christopher Roman Catholic Church poll site, said yes: "I voted for Cuomo, but it's not about him, it's become about it not being Mamdani," she told me. "I came from the USSR, so I know what socialism and communism is. I don't wanna repeat it." 

Nadia, who did not want to give her last name, said she wanted to vote for Sliwa, but she'd heard President Trump's rallying call to vote for Cuomo. "We have no choice, you have to pick the least worst of the two." 

Ann Tortorella, 75, was also voting for Cuomo because of his experience as governor, as was retiree Deborah McGrath: "I voted for Mario Cuomo…I mean, I'm sorry, Andrew Cuomo," McGrath said. "I did like his dad, and I know there were some mistakes, but I'm gonna give him a shot." But accountant Mark Caulo—concerned about taxes and affordability—said he was sticking with his man: "That's the President's choice to endorse Cuomo, but I voted for Sliwa," Caulo said. "He's straightforward, I like the fact that he's conservative, and he has a good track record with what he did with the Guardian Angels." 

Joseph Guinto, a beauty salon director who has lived on Staten Island for 40 years, was the sole Mamdani voter we found at the church, and acknowledged he was in the minority. "This is Trump country!" he said. But he felt his neighbors—and Democrats, too—were ready for a change: "I think it's time for something different. Trump was a disruptor in the Republican field and I think we need somebody who's a disruptor in the Democratic field," Guinto said. "I think if he can do it properly and he does it right, he can show the rest of the country that these aren't just socialist concepts, there are certain things that should be inalienable rights, like education and health care."

Meanwhile, at the NYCHA Berry Houses Community Center poll site a 15-minute walk away, voters seemed more willing to dabble in democratic socialism this time around. 

Felicia Cruz, a mom of two who brought her kids out to vote, said she voted for Trump in the presidential election because of her Christian values—but that she's since been let down by his actions, especially around the slated pause on SNAP benefits. "The choices that he's making, I see that those don't carry the fruit of the spirit for me, especially through the holidays. I don't feel like anybody should be without, especially families and children." Cruz said she was casting her vote for Mamdani. "I have to worry about my kids, you know?" 

A handful of other voters leaving the NYCHA polling site were also voting for Mamdani. Tonya Scarlett, a former home care worker, said she was sick of aging politicians "destroying the world," as she put it. "We got hunger, we got homelessness, you know, it's like the world is falling apart. Mamdani is young, he's vibrant. He's different." Fabian Perez, 58, told me he was voting for Mamdani because he felt like he cares for the less fortunate. "I feel the Constitution itself is in jeopardy. I see ICE is taking people who have the right to be here," he said. 

Finally, I spoke with Fati Vuillemey, who is originally from Niger but who has lived on Staten Island for 25 years. Vuillemey, who uses a wheelchair, was glammed up for the occasion, wearing lipstick and red-white-and-blue diamante hoop earrings. "Today is like my number one holiday, because election days are where all the decisions get made," she said.

Vuillemey, a disability rights advocate, voted for Mamdani due to his housing agenda. She said she has a friend in a wheelchair who has been waiting four years for a home that can fit her chair inside (she has to leave it outside, with her aide forced to de-ice it to get it working on the coldest winter days). "Mamdani's campaign resonates with my needs, personally," she said. "It's very expensive and we need more accessible housing."

—Jessy Edwards

UPDATE 2:42 P.M.

Voting while locked up in the City's jails is complicated—and that's by design, according to the Vote in NYC Jails Coalition, which works to enfranchise the thousands of New Yorkers held on Rikers and in other City jails. 

Recently, Abigail Glasgow joined the coalition during a voter outreach session at Rikers:

According to the coalition, in the November 2024 election, only half of the absentee ballots requested by New Yorkers incarcerated at Rikers were filled out and returned. That total amounted to 546 ballots, meaning that roughly 7 percent of the jail's population voted, compared to the city's overall turnout rate of 54 percent. A large part of the problem, according to advocates, is the process crafted by DOC and the BOE. There is only one DOC employee who collects the voter registration forms and absentee ballots and delivers them to the BOE. "I've run into people who I registered to vote a year ago and they're telling me, 'I never received a ballot to cast my vote,'" said Takeasha Newton, a coordinator for the coalition and the lead community organizer with Legal Aid’s Community Justice Unit. "Every time I ask about it, no one has any answers for me." 

To read the rest of her story, including interviews with voters at Rikers, go here.

UPDATE 2:33 P.M. | Manhattan Beach, Brooklyn

In Manhattan Beach, on the eastern end of the Coney Island peninsula, 78 percent of voters went for Trump in the 2024 election. A few hundred feet up the block from PS 195 this afternoon, a group of men was handing out fliers from Fix the City, a Cuomo-aligned political action committee. "A vote for Sliwa is a vote for Mamdani," the flier read.

The message seemed to have penetrated. Everyone Hell Gate spoke to was sympathetic to Curtis Sliwa, but considered it more strategic to hold their nose and vote for Andrew Cuomo. (Perhaps they also saw Donald Trump's endorsement of the former governor.)

"I care about Israel, how expensive the city has become, safety, and taxes," said an older woman who did not wish to give her name. "I understand the appeal of Mamdani—a fresh start, all of that—but he doesn't have the experience. I like Sliwa, but that would be a wasted vote. So it's Cuomo."

Tali, 28, who works in sales and declined to share her last name, agreed. "I voted for Cuomo because I'm scared of Mamdani," she said. "He's a jihadist. I saw he was at the club the other day? That is not a good look."

For Olga Amin, a 54-year-old scientist, and her husband, this election is personal. "We come from Russia," she said. "We know exactly what socialism is, and what it leads to. So this election isn't about who we're voting for, it's about who we are voting against. Cuomo is well known for many of the bad things he did as governor, but we voted for him. We love the United States, we love New York City, and we don't want to see them ruined by socialism."

Eric, 42, self-employed, voted for Cuomo, but wasn't happy with his choices. "There is no candidate I like in this election," he said (he also declined to share his last name). "But what are you going to do? I don't want socialist policies here." 

What sort of candidate would Eric feel good about voting for? "A strong leader. Someone who takes care of crime. If you bring crime down, everything else will fall into place," he said.

UPDATE 2:09 P.M. | Ridgewood, Queens

Almost everyone who popped in and out of IS 93 in Ridgewood over the course of an hour had one thing in common: They did not want to talk about the six ballot proposals up for a vote this Election Day. "I have no idea what they are or how I'm going to vote on them," one frazzled man in a khaki jacket told me as he headed inside. "Talk to me after?" I asked. But on his way out of the polling site, he walked in the opposite direction without even glancing my way.

Eventually, though, some voters were willing to stop and chat. Denise, a lifelong Ridgewood resident and conservative who voted for Andrew Cuomo as "the less of the two evils," told me that she voted no on every single ballot proposal. "I just feel like there's a lot of red tape involved that they're not really breaking down for the people, and how it's going to affect taxpayers in the city," she told me of the proposals. Meanwhile, she said she'd wanted to vote for Curtis Sliwa, who she admired for his history of protecting New York City, but the polls convinced her to throw in her lot with the former governor instead. "I feel like Cuomo has the experience. The things that Mamdani is proposing are outrageous to me, especially the 'defund the police,'" she said. (Mamdani has said throughout his mayoral campaign that he does not want to defund the police.) "Crime is bad enough here as it is, and if it gets worse, I'm out, I'm moving, I'm leaving."

Meanwhile, the four other Ridgewood residents who were willing to discuss the ballot proposals all voted for Zohran Mamdani—a figure that comports with how firmly pro-Mamdani the neighborhood was during this year's primary election. But on ballot props, the answers varied more widely. Sarah, who declined to give her last name, told me she voted yes on every single proposal in accordance with a "women's voting guide" one of her friends sent her; so did Tom, who ranked Brad Lander number one back in June and trusted Lander's recommendations on the housing props this time around. He also voted yes on Proposal 6, which would shift odd-year elections to even-numbered years, because "any sort of streamlining the city can do for the most part to save money is a good thing." As for Proposal 1, regarding the winter sports facility in the Adirondacks, "one friend from upstate expressed that it was a 'yes,' so I voted yes, because I appreciated her input," he said. "I was like, you know what, if locals support this, I appreciate it."

Sebastian, a Jewish New Yorker who's been living in Ridgewood for a year, chatted with friends about the ballot proposals, and ended up voting "yes to the affordable housing, and no to the ski slopes in the Adirondacks," adding with a laugh, "I guess I should have done more actual research, but anything that gives more oversight or lets anyone do an automatic veto, it feels like that's wrong."

Stephen Barry said he's not affiliated with either party, but mostly voted for Democrats, including Mamdani—affordability in the city, he told me, is his number one concern. As for the proposals, after doing some research on Google and using the official NYC Votes guide, he voted "yes to the skiing, yes to the map," and yes on housing Props 2 through 4, but couldn't quite recall how he voted on Proposal 6.

Frankly, even among my personal circle, it's hard to find anyone who voted the same way on the ballot proposals; Hell Gate itself was divided, both on the affordable housing-related proposals and Props 1, 5, and 6. But in the end, maybe that's a good thing? "It's awesome that there are different opinions," one friend wrote in a group chat, during early voting. "Forces us to think… I love that." Another friend replied, "Unlike electoral politics, exactly." 

—Katie Way

UPDATE 2:02 P.M.

And now we have a last-minute ad from the pro-Cuomo super PAC For Our City, which recently received almost $4 million from Michael Bloomberg, featuring Zohran Mamdani in front of the burning Twin Towers on 9/11. (Also, Hasan Piker once again enters the chat.)

Here's how Mamdani addressed the Islamophobia and racism that's been directed his way, during the live taping of the Hell Gate Podcast:

UPDATE 1:23 P.M.

Zohran Mamdani's plans for the NYPD, which notably centers around shifting the City's response to mental health crises away from the police and instead to a new Department of Community Safety, have attracted a lot of scrutiny in the past few months.

But one group of people we haven't really heard from? NYPD officers themselves.

Hell Gate's Jessy Edwards spoke with two current officers and one who just retired to get their take on Mamdani's plans.

One officer had this to say:

I especially don't trust Mamdani because he has literally zero experience and I'm actually more qualified to be the mayor than he is. I've spent countless nights in the subways and see the homeless and mental health crisis going on firsthand, and nothing has really changed since 2018. If anything, it's gotten worse. The subways turn into homeless shelters overnight and the only people that are expected to do anything about it are the cops. There are no homeless services out there at 4 a.m. It's just the cops. 

But he also said he believes that his life as a cop would probably improve under a Mamdani administration:

I actually think if Mamdani gets elected and stops us from enforcing quality-of-life issues, my own quality of life will significantly improve because I will no longer be forced to arrest homeless people for sleeping in the subways. There needs to be a better system in place for the homeless and the mentally ill, because the current system is very, very broken. I will be forced to arrest someone who is homeless and sleeping on the trains or smoking on the trains and go through the entire arrest process only for them to get released the same day. It's a waste of time and resources, but the bosses in our department continue to force this to happen because there does not seem to be a viable alternative.

Read the rest of Jessy's story here.

UPDATE 12:56 P.M.

Someone who has finally and mercifully embraced his natural hair color is continuing to have the time of his life.

UPDATE 12:34 P.M. | Midtown East, Manhattan

Around 10:20 a.m., Andrew Cuomo voted at the High School of Art and Design on East 56th Street, near his Sutton Place apartment, in a district that he won by 12 percentage points over Mamdani in the June primary.

"I'm feeling very good. I feel the momentum is on our side," the ex-governor told a huge swarm of reporters outside after he cast his ballot, noting that the polls show the race has tightened. "I've been on the street. I can feel it from people." 

He added, "This is the first time I ever walked into the polling place and the polling place cheered for me."

When he was asked on Tuesday morning about Donald Trump's endorsement of him, Cuomo deflected.

"The president does not support me. The president opposes Zohran Mamdani," Cuomo said, before helpfully noting there is a difference between communism and socialism. "The president believes Zohran Mamdani is a communist, he believes he's an existential threat. I believe he's a socialist and an existential threat." 

Asked again about what he would say to New Yorkers who are concerned about Trump backing his campaign, Cuomo again dodged the question, eliding the fact that Trump himself posted, "Whether you personally like Andrew Cuomo or not, you really have no choice. You must vote for him, and hope he does a fantastic job."

"He is not supporting me," he said. "He opposes Zohran Mamdani. He's saying that a vote for Sliwa is a vote for Mamdani, which is true."

Cuomo was more direct about how he saw the stakes of the election. "It's the most important election of my lifetime," Cuomo said. "It's going to determine the future of the city of New York. It may also determine the future of the Democratic party."

He then jumped into his white Ford Bronco and drove away.

There were indeed many Cuomo voters at the site, though not all of them were super enthusiastic about casting their ballot for the ex-gov.

"I voted not for Mamdani," one 83-year-old woman who asked to be called by her first initial, S, told Hell Gate. S said she voted for Cuomo because she was "not a socialist," but declined to say anything nice about the former governor.

Elizabeth and Hank Collins both said they voted for Cuomo because, in Elizabeth's words, "he knows how to run the city." Elizabeth said she wasn't too bothered by the fact that he has been accused by 13 women of sexual harassment and misconduct.

"No, having seen Charlie Rose and a bunch of other people, it's part of the territory," she said.

Still, Elizabeth had kind words for Mamdani.

"I think he's full of energy and I really like him as a person," she said. "But I don't think he can give free everything." She added, "I don't think he can deliver on it."

Hank explained his vote for Cuomo this way: "He needs another chance." ("That's a man's opinion," Elizabeth remarked.)

Anna, a 24-year-old art museum worker who moved to the neighborhood a few months ago (she declined to give her last name), said she voted for Mamdani "because I'm a young person."

"I'm disgusted with Andrew Cuomo and how he's treated women," she explained.

Anna said she was casting her ballot just as Cuomo was greeting voters.

"He went right down the line, shook everyone else's hand, gave me the side-eye, then moved on," she said. "He probably knew that I wasn't voting for him."

—Christopher Robbins

UPDATE 12:08 P.M.

Our favorite election whisperer Michael Lange is back on the job, and early results from the day look good for Zohran Mamdani. Voters are already coming out strong across the city, on pace to hit 2.05 million by the end of Election Day:

UPDATE 11:44 A.M. | Midwood, Brooklyn

Outside PS 99 in Midwood, voters who spoke with Hell Gate were deeply skeptical of Mamdani.

"I voted for Cuomo because I like that he's experienced, and he's the most qualified candidate," said Shayna Levine, a retired executive secretary. "But I also voted for him because I wanted to vote against Mamdani. I would maybe have voted for Sliwa, but he doesn't have a chance and I want my vote to matter. As a Jew, Mamdani concerns me. He's expressed negative feelings for Israel, and that's a problem for me.”

An excited 70-year-old woman who wished to be identified as "Z from Avenue J" agreed. 

"I voted right: I voted for Cuomo," she said. "Mamdani—what was your job that you did before? Did you run a school? Did you do anything, you little spoiled brat? He’s a fucking liar! He sells you lies, and the stupid people who do not even remember 9/11 just eat it up. And since when do we need a socialist?!"

Edward Sobel, 62, who works with his son in a fruit and vegetable warehouse, also considered voting for Sliwa, but decided not to because of his long odds. 

"So I voted for Cuomo, who's not the best candidate but he's the least bad candidate," Sobel said. "He's not the best because of all that stikla—that means monkey business, Jewish people who read this will know that word—when he was governor. Mamdani, look, he wants to lock up Netanyahu. I'm not even that observant—I eat pork!—but c'mon, he hates the Jews, he hates everybody, he's from a rich family and he doesn't have any experience."

—Nick Pinto

UPDATE 11:09 A.M. | Chinatown, Manhattan

Down the block of MS 131 in Chinatown, Hong Yang, a member-leader at CAAAV Action, handed out palm cards for Zohran, in front of a sign written in Chinese listing the candidate's campaign pledges. CAAAV Action endorsed Mamdani on day one of his campaign, and is part of a coalition that's promised to push for the enactment of his agenda if he's elected. In part because of their efforts, Mamdani handily won Chinatown during the primary. 

But how are voters feeling now? Inside the polling site, the mostly Chinese American voters were in and out in under 10 minutes. 

One voter, 49-year-old Theresa, who didn't want to share her last name, cast her ballot for Mamdani because "I am a Democrat," she told Hell Gate. And while she wasn't entirely in support of all of Mamdani's policies, the fact that he had won the primary was what motivated her to vote for him on the party line. 

Still, Theresa's top priority was public safety. She'd seen videos online where people had pledged to begin stealing from grocery stores because SNAP benefits had been turned off (almost all of those videos are AI-generated). "It's like you're allowed to steal now, it's legal," she said. 

Jenny, a 46-year-old voter who also declined to give her last name, is a Republican. But this election, she was voting for Andrew Cuomo. "I was given two options in this election of people who could win, one I wouldn't pick, and one I was OK with," she said. 

Would she have voted for Andrew Cuomo if he had won the Democratic primary?

"Probably not," she said. "I would have voted for the Republican. I just don't like Democrats' immigration policies…and Mamdani…he's just too inexperienced for a city this big." 

At Confucius Plaza off the Bowery, older voters finished their morning calisthenics routine before heading into the polling site in their community center. 

Ninety-one-year-old Lousa, who has lived in Chinatown for most of her life, was voting while accompanied by her daughter. Lousa had had arguments with her grandchildren over whom she should vote for—they had begged her to vote for Mamdani. But for Lousa, her daughter explained, it all came down to one issue: the Chinatown jail. 

"She can't imagine such a huge building in Chinatown, bigger than the rest, and devoted to a jail of all things? To her, it was personal," her daughter said. 

Lousa voted for the candidate that pledged to stop the building of the jail—Andrew Cuomo.

—Max Rivlin-Nadler

UPDATE 11:01 A.M.

Per a tipster (my dad), House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has been spotted at the polls…in Arlington, Virginia. The New York congressmember reluctantly endorsed Zohran Mamdani just two days before early voting began, but said on Monday that he does not see the assemblymember as the future of the Democratic Party.

On Election Day, Jeffries seems to be voting with his feet when it comes to that question, showing up instead to support the Virginia gubernatorial run of Representative Abigail Spanberger.

—Katie Way

UPDATE 10:52 A.M.

Our very own Christopher Robbins was outside of Andrew Cuomo's polling site this morning, where the ex-governor was asked about President Trump's endorsement. "He is not supporting me," Cuomo replied. "He opposes Zohran Mamdami." Zohran WHO?

UPDATE 10:07 A.M.

Mamdani finally shares how he plans to vote on the six ballot proposals before New York City voters. (And if you want to read Hell Gate's guide to all six, go here.)

UPDATE 9:44 A.M. | Kensington, Brooklyn

At PS 62 in Kensington Tuesday morning, the people streaming into the polls included groups of Bangladeshi women with their faces covered, black-hatted haredi men, and young white families rolling up on cargo bikes. Mamdani volunteers were posted up at the surrounding intersections handing out last-minute campaign fliers. The other campaigns did not have any visible presence.

Mia Unger, 45, an immigration lawyer, said she voted for Mamdani because of his policies. "But also because he will bring a lot of energy to the office, and because he's not afraid to stand up to Donald Trump and protect immigrant New Yorkers."

Salman Hossain, 40, a software engineer, brought his whole family to vote for Mamdani.

"He's young, he's vibrant, he's bringing a lot of culture and energy," Hossain said. "It feels good to vote for him."

Ambien Mitchell, 39, who works in education, brought her young daughter to the poll to vote for Mamdani. "I feel this great enthusiasm that is mixed with great trepidation," she said. "So often we get our hopes up and then they're dashed. I had this pang of fear in the polling site, like, what if there is some surprise political formation and Cuomo wins? Even leaving politics aside, as a woman, as a mother to a girl, I don’t know how many times we can see men not held accountable for their actions. I can’t raise my child in that world."

Mitchell said she's also worried about what might happen if Mamdani wins. "There could be that whole Obama thing, where he galvanized the hopes of a lot of disaffected young and working class people and then disappointed them," she said. "But what gives me hope about Zohran is that speech he gave about being Muslim. To see him not back down on that was really inspiring. The love he feels for this city is really beautiful, and something everyone who actually lives here can identify with."

—Nick Pinto

UPDATE 6:30 A.M. | Flatbush, Brooklyn

As the sun rose on Election Day, I asked Darren Wilson, one of the first voters at the PS 235 polling site in central Flatbush, what he came out to vote for. "One, because people lost their lives over the decades, as a Black person. And two, for change." He was voting for Mamdani, whom he had previously ranked first in the Democratic primary, because he said when Cuomo had his chance as a governor, he mired himself in scandal. "He's about power. You were the governor, now you want to be the mayor. Why?" Another Mamdani voter at PS 235, a young woman who didn't want to be named because she works for the City, said she cares primarily about affordable housing.

The farther east into Flatbush, the more heavy Cuomo's support was in the primary. But even several blocks over at PS 135, of the New Yorkers who cared to talk about their votes, all but one were Mamdani supporters. I didn't expect Ezria Joe, a 23-year-old math major at CUNY, to be the exception—especially when she said her concern in voting was affordability—but she told me she voted for Curtis Sliwa. "Because he's a genuine person, he has actual experience working with people, and actually trying to help people," Joe said. "Mamdani is good at talking, but your personality can't be the leading point." She doesn't like Mamdani's lack of experience, she said, and on top of that, "he doesn't really know New York. He's a wealthy immigrant from Uganda, and he has wealthy parents. I don't discriminate, I don't think if someone has a different background than me they're automatically disqualified, but it's a combination."

Apart from her, everyone else I spoke to was voting for Mamdani, or as Cuomo-to-Mamdani convert Marva Powell called him, "the Muslim guy." She said she wanted change, and so was giving him a chance. A bus driver who gave his name, perhaps jokingly, as "David X," said he voted for Mamdani because he lives in a rent-stabilized apartment and wants his rent frozen. I'm sure there must have been Cuomo supporters among the voters who waved me away with a polite "no thank you." But if there were people voting for the man the president endorsed yesterday by saying "you really have no choice," they weren't as excited to talk about it.

—Adlan Jackson