Hell Gate's NYC Primary Day Live Blog

Primary Day is finally here. After months of campaigning, things have reached a boiling point—and we're not just talking about the hellishly hot weather.

Will Andrew Cuomo, coasting largely on name recognition and tens of millions of dollars in super PAC spending, overcome a sluggish, phoned-in campaign to win the Democratic mayoral nomination? Or will one of the most improbable upsets in New York City electoral history take place, with democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani riding the wave of his late-breaking momentum all the way to victory?

Oh, right—there's also primary races for comptroller, public advocate, and borough presidents, as well as a handful of competitive City Council races. Want to read our previous election coverage? Go here.

Hell Gate's live blog will be humming all day, as our reporters fan out across the city to talk to voters and keep an eye on the polling sites. Also, be sure to tune in tonight to Hell Gate's primary election livestream, starting at 8:30 p.m.!

UPDATE 6:17 P.M. | Hell Gate's Primary Day live blog is now closed—thanks for joining us!

But don't despair. Tonight, Hell Gate will be giving you up-to-the-minute coverage and commentary—live and on your screens! From 8:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m., we're hosting a primary election night livestream to help guide you through all the (possibly brain-breaking) results. You can watch it here. 

• There will be anchors at the desk detailing all of the results!
• There will be Hell Gate journalists in the field reporting from the election night parties of the leading candidates!
• There will be interviews with leading pundits (City Councilmember Chi Ossé, New York City's favorite political commentator Olayemi Olurin, and elections whisperer Michael Lange) and maybe even some special unannounced guests!
• There will be snazzy graphics that will be right there on screen showing who's winning! (To better induce a heart attack.) 
• And there will MOST DEFINITELY BE all of the chaos and excitement that comes with live news coverage! 

Want to be around other people for another potentially harrowing election night? Here's a (still-growing) list of bars and other venues that will be showing our livestream:

• Oak & Iron, Greenpoint
• Boyfriend Co-op, Bushwick
• Peg's Cavalier, Ridgewood
• Wild East Brewing Co., Gowanus
• Kings County Brewers Collective (KCBC), Bushwick
• Brickyard, Financial District
• Brooklyn Masonic, Clinton Hill
• 9 Bob Note, Williamsburg
• Parklife, Park Slope
• Honey's, Bushwick
• The Lowery, Sunnyside
• Sudhouse, Washington, D.C.

To get a reminder when our livestream starts, add it to your Google Calendar here.

UPDATE 6:04 P.M. | Jackson Heights, Queens

The temperature had just reached 100 as Hell Gate arrived at PS 69 in Jackson Heights, where we encountered a small but persistent Zohran Mamdani canvassing army that had spread out at all surrounding intersections.

Those canvassers were speaking to voters in English, Hindi, Bangla, Urdu, Nepali, and Spanish. One canvasser, Manzur Ahmed, 46, was wearing an OG Mamdani shirt that read "Roti and Roses," dating from Mamdani's run for state assembly. Ahmed held back tears as he described the feeling of being a part of a campaign for a Muslim mayor. "I finally didn't feel like I was being seen as a monster," Ahmed said.

Many of the voters who passed by had already cast their vote for Mamdani, including Adelo Hernandez, a 66-year-old cook, who sported a classic Bernie 2016 campaign T-shirt. Hernandez had ranked Mamdani first, Brad Lander second, and Adrienne Adams third. He had also voted for Justin Brannan as comptroller and Shekar Krishnan for City Council.

Mamdani, Hernandez said, "offers something more for the people that not have much money, you know, like he offers free bus." Hernandez added, "He cares more about the people that have a salary too low." 

Edgar Gutierrez, 68, had included Mamdani as his number two, but his number one slot he had given to Andrew Cuomo. Gutierrez said that he had given his top spot to Cuomo because of his experience as governor.

Gutierrez, originally from Colombia, said that immigration was a central issue to him. "The politician right now in the White House is working for rich people, not for poor people," Gutierrez said. "But we knew that we had to come here to work. And not everybody is as Trump says, that all of us are criminals. We are not criminals. We have respect because I work very hard, very hard during all these years in the country. And I don't think that we deserve this treatment," he said.

For Gutierrez, who works as a home health aide, rent was also on his mind—specifically, the rent being too high. He told us that he planned to continue to delay his retirement in order to have enough money to pay the $1,500/month for his studio apartment. If he retired now, on the $1,200 he would receive per month, he said, "I can't live."

—Liv Veazey

UPDATE 4:56 p.m. | Grand Concourse, South Bronx

At the polling site inside the Michelangelo Apartments on 151st Street near the Grand Concourse, the air conditioning had been on the fritz all day, and the din made by a slew of industrial fans made the precinct loud and breezy.

Poll worker James Smith, 62, said that the heat had slowed things down in the afternoon, but that voting turnout had been pretty good, especially during the last weekend of early voting.

Smith himself voted for Adrienne Adams as his number one choice, Brad Lander as his number two, Andrew Cuomo as his number three, and Zohran Mamdani as his fourth choice.

"She means well and I like her spunk," Smith said of Adams, the City Council speaker. Cuomo's strong pandemic performance earned him a spot on Smith's ballot ("I was a CNN and MSNBC addict," Smith laughed) though he liked that Lander and Mamdani had cross-endorsed. "I appreciate how they teamed up to fight Cuomo," he said.

Smith spotted his younger brother Kirk and his 21-year-old nephew Ryan leave the polling place, and urged them to speak with us. Both men voted for Cuomo, but they couldn't really say why.

"We've known him for years," Kirk explained. "He'd probably make the world better," Ryan said, although he didn't sound all that convinced. Both men told Hell Gate they couldn't remember if they had ranked anyone else on the ballot.

Maxim Vargas, a 19-year-old Bronx Community College student, said he voted for Mamdani as his number one choice, and cited the candidate's pledge to fight the Trump administration and his platform of making the city more affordable. "I feel like he'll make New York City a better place and I feel like he'll protect us from what's going down," Vargas said. "I'm kind of like, scared, low-key."

Vargas said he did not rank Cuomo. "I watched the debate—he talked about Israel and Palestine, and I don't support his beliefs on that," Vargas said. "I honestly think he's the type of person to resonate with Trump, and that's not something I'm looking for in a mayor at all." 

Adolfo Reyes, 21, was home for the summer from the University of Buffalo, and also said he voted for Mamdani first.

"I've seen the popular YouTube clips, but I've also done my research, and I saw what he's advocating for—affordable housing, freezing rent, trying to make child care free. All of those things sound really good, so I thought that was probably the best choice to go with," he said.

Reyes, a mechanical engineering student who has lived in the Bronx his whole life, said he did not rank Cuomo on his ballot.

"For me, I think from what family and friends are telling me, what he did during his term [as governor], he raised the prices on rent," Reyes explained.

—Christopher Robbins

UPDATE 4:55 P.M. | East Harlem, Manhattan

It's 100 degrees in Harlem and school is out at PS 57, where kids are waiting for their parents to pick them up and voters are trying to make it in and out of the polling site before they melt into puddles.

Hell Gate navigated a minor water fight and a principal with a walkie-talkie to chat with two Spanish-speaking women, one using a walker and one fanning herself with an "I Voted" fan. She said both voted for Cuomo but they couldn't stop to chat about it: "Too hot!"

For good reason, no one is too excited to stop and dissect the primary in this abysmal heat. We jogged alongside a 40-year-old Black man who works at a nonprofit, who declined to give his name. He said he ranked Zohran Mamdani number one.

"Bernie endorsed him, and also the Working Families Party endorsed him, and the things that matter to them are the things that matter to me, so I didn't need to do much more research," he said. Next, he ranked Brad Lander, Michael Blake, and Adrienne Adams. 

The walk-and-talk took us down the street past a LinkNYC bus stop ad for Cuomo, which featured a line pulled from the weird and tortured June 16 New York Times non-endorsement endorsement of the former governor. "Cuomo has the strongest policy record of the candidates," the ad read, making a small but significant edit from the original. (The full paragraph in the Times editorial read, "He also made significant mistakes, such as his mishandling of COVID at nursing homes and poor management of public transit. Still, Mr. Cuomo has the strongest policy record of the candidates.")

Back at PS 57, Yesenia, a 35-year-old teacher, had made sure she brought her mom Evelyn, 64, out to vote in spite of the heat wave. With her daughter translating, the white-haired Evelyn said in Spanish that she voted for Mamdani number one, and Scott Stringer number two. Mother and daughter had spent plenty of time talking through the candidates, they both said. 

"She lives in a NYCHA building, so affordability is very important to her," said Yesenia, who voted early and ranked Mamdani one and Lander number two.

We ran into Mark (no time to get his last name), an employee at Adobe, who said he ranked Lander first, then Mamdani, then Adams. "Anyone but Cuomo," the 46-year-old said. "He's, like, not a good dude. I liked him when he was first governor, and then that entire last term was just an absolute disaster."

—Jessy Edwards

UPDATE 4:29 P.M. | Here's some analysis of the latest vote totals, folks:

UPDATE 3:34 P.M. | The BOE Does It Again

As voters continue to flock to the polls—710,858 as of 3 p.m., including early votes, according to the New York City Board of Elections—there are reports of an unusually high number of people arriving at their polling places and being told that they can't vote as they normally would, because their address or registration doesn't match the records at the polling site, even though they are listed correctly on the Board of Elections website.

A poll worker in Bushwick, who did not wish to be identified because they are not authorized to speak to the press, told Hell Gate that while this happens to a few people every election, they were seeing this issue affect far more people today than in previous years. Of the roughly 200 people who have come to vote so far at their polling place, several dozen of them have been unable to cast their vote because of inconsistencies with the poll site records, they said.

"When they check their registration on the BOE website, it's correct," the poll worker said. "But when they check it against the poll site record, it's wrong."

At this poll worker's location, the voting problems are exclusively affecting young voters, they said. 

"It seems like a big issue," they said. "A lot of them are really mad." Some of the voters accepted poll workers' invitation to file affidavit ballots instead, they said, but others left, hoping that if they came back to vote later, the problem would be resolved. (Everyone who encounters this issue should request to vote via an affidavit ballot.)

The Board of Elections did not immediately respond to questions about the voting problems. 

Similar problems are being reported anecdotally on social media by City Councilmember Chi Ossé and several other people who say they or someone they know were forced to file affidavit ballots.

Ossé posted a screenshot of his correspondence with a Board of Elections employee, who explained that the poll books that are used at the polls to determine whether someone is eligible to vote haven't been updated since June 9.

In a post on X after Hell Gate published this story, the BOE shared some more information, noting that there was a not-very-well-publicized June 9 deadline to update your address in time to make it into the correct poll book:

In a close and contested election, affidavit ballots can undergo close scrutiny and be invalidated on technical grounds if they haven't been filled out perfectly. In 2019, Tiffany Cabán led Melinda Katz in the Queens district attorney race by more than 1,000 votes on election night, but Katz ultimately won the election after a recount invalidated 2,300 affidavit ballots.

Today's Democratic mayoral primary could be similarly close. Some projections put the margin of victory around 1,300 votes.

"I'm concerned that a large number of people are not going to have their votes counted in this election," the Bushwick poll worker said.

This post has been updated to more accurately reflect the BOE's rules around changing the address on one's voter registration.

—Nick Pinto

UPDATE 3:30 P.M. | Here's the latest from Michael Lange, the election whisperer we'll be chatting with on our livestream tonight—tune in!

UPDATE 2:40 P.M. | Boerum Hill, Brooklyn

By 11:30 a.m. at PS 38, the sounds of chattering elementary schoolers enjoying their lunchtime floated into the room where around 20 sweaty Brooklynites had lined up to vote. "I see a lot of young people came out to vote today," one woman with gray hair whispered to another as she cast a sidelong glance at the millennials on line behind her. 

Outside the school, poll worker Gretel was enjoying a Newport under the scant shade of a nearby tree and laughing at the crowd of voters. "It's always like this here," she told Hell Gate. "Nobody votes early. Doesn't anybody have a job?" Probably not, or at least, not the kind that would prevent them from taking their legally mandated two hours of voting time for the primary.

John, a financial advisor in his mid-30s, told Hell Gate that he ranked Andrew Cuomo first and Zohran Mamdani second, and Paperboy Prince in the fourth slot because the latter "has an awesome name." "I was torn," he said. "I'm intrigued by both, but I went with experience—I'm not necessarily a Cuomo fan, I think Zohran represents a nice bit of idealism and some of his policies are great, but that being said, running New York City is a major job." John said he did some pre-election research and listened to some podcasts before voting down the ballot. "Pretty much anyone aligned with Eric Adams, I made sure not to vote for them," he said. 

Roni, a 28 year-old real estate broker, told Hell Gate that she's ranking Brad Lander because she appreciates his progressive policies and said that she hopes the next mayor of New York City will "increase the opportunities for economic mobility" for its residents, especially the ones who grew up here, like her clients in the neighborhood who've lived in Boerum Hill for their entire lives.

"I'm very aware of the issues that impact housing, especially, because it is my job," Roni said. "I see issues with families facing foreclosure, or having these big assets, not being able to afford the upkeep, and then mortgages may not be able to actually help them financially. So, I want New Yorkers to be able to stay in New York." 

Hell Gate caught Karen, who owns and operates a shop nearby in Cobble Hill, on her way out after getting scared off by the long line to vote—she said she'd be back after she opened her store at noon. Karen said that her favorite candidate was Brad Lander, but that she was ultimately going to rank Mamdani first, because she believed he had the best shot at beating Cuomo, who she wasn't going to rank at all. "He's just another Trumper, basically. He's dishonest," she said of the ex-governor. She didn't like his attitude or the fact that his billionaire financial backers would leave him with "obligations" if he gets elected. "I'd love someone who could stand up to Trump," she said. "That's why I like Lander! The fact that he's going in and fighting for the immigrants—amazing. Who else is doing that?"

UPDATE 2:40 P.M. | Former Mayor Bill de Blasio has voted, though he has still not revealed his ranking. In an interview with New York Magazine last week, he expressed approval of Lander, Adams, and Mamdani. Sporting what seems to be a new hair color (strawberry blond?) in the X post below, he used the hashtag #DontRankCuomo.

UPDATE 2:23 P.M. | Ocean Hill, Brooklyn 

At PS 73, located at MacDougal Street and Rockaway Avenue, the temperature was already well into the 90s by mid-morning. But from 11:30 a.m. on, there was a steady dribble of voters braving the heat, including older New Yorkers on scooters and walkers, women with wide-brimmed hats and rain umbrellas for shade, and some first-time voters coming in with their parents. 

Ann, a Black certified nursing assistant in her 50s, said she moved to the neighborhood a year ago from Florida. She'd been doing her research on the candidates' policy platforms, all of whom were totally new to her. "I like Mamdani, housing is important," she said. "And I asked my sister about Cuomo, she said he was a good person. We’re human, we make mistakes." 

So who did she rank first, then? Ann was coy, laughing off the question. "I like their policies," she said. 

SJ Derowski, 29, said she was "obviously" ranking Zohran Mamdani first. Then Brad Lander, Zellnor Myrie, Michael Blake, and Adrienne Adams. 

"I need an affordable New York City," she said. Derowski said her family came to the city from Ireland in the 1920s. Her father was a first responder on 9/11 and worked for the Port Authority for 30 years, but had since been priced out of the city and had to move to New Jersey. 

"The majority of people in this city are working-class people, so it's seeing somebody that is actually putting working-class people first," she said of her support for Mamdani. "The whole idea of like, 'Well, if you tax the rich, they're gonna leave.' Well okay, so be it. Fuck off!"

Chef Annabel Sharahy, 29, was also ranking Mamdani number one, Lander number two. In her hometown in New Jersey, she said she experienced "a good amount of discrimination and Islamophobia."

"It's cool to see a Muslim potentially be mayor. And my mom was originally Jewish, so the fact that he supports Jewish people and Muslim people, it's really cool," Sharahy said.

Ousmane Traore, 56, a janitor, said he was ranking Cuomo number one ("Experience!") and Lander number two. "I'm glad to participate," he said gleefully before fist-bumping this reporter and zooming off on his scooter.

New mom Elizabeth Lopiccolo, 40, said she's lived in Bed-Stuy about 12 years. She said she voted for the Working Family Party's slate, with Mamdani number one. "It sounds like he understands how hard it can be to live here and try to have a kid and just exist," she said.

—Jessy Edwards

UPDATE 2:05 P.M. | Emma G. Fitzsimmons, the New York Times City Hall bureau chief, is interviewing Curtis Sliwa. His take? Mamdani looks good. Cuomo looks...grumpy.

UPDATE 1:33 P.M. | "One person doesn't have a record. Another person is running from their record. I'm the only candidate running on my record," Adams, the first New York City mayor to be federally indicted while in office, says of Mamdani and Cuomo when asked about squaring up with either in the general election. 

UPDATE 1:24 P.M. | Flatbush, Brooklyn

A little before 9 a.m. outside of P.S. 249 in Flatbush, the voters Hell Gate spoke to were mostly supporting Brad Lander and Zohran Mamdani.

Affordability was top of mind for Julie Ember, a public space designer, who said she ranked Brad Lander first for mayor, followed by Zellnor Myrie, Mamdani, Adrienne Adams, and Scott Stringer. "Cuomo is corrupt," Ember said. "I believe those women. And he doesn't show any signs of having changed."

Mel and Audrey King also ranked Lander first on their ballots, with Mamdani second. The ranking was something of a toss-up for them, Mel said: "We really like them both, but we've known Brad for years. He goes to our synagogue. Plus, being comptroller, he understands how the money moves in this city, which is important." Neither ranked Andrew Cuomo.

"I was working on public health during COVID," Audrey said. "Cuomo was a disaster."

Ashley, another voter, ranked Mamdani first and Lander second as well. "The mayor's an important position," she said. "Zohran and Brad have both been putting out clear policies about making New York feel affordable again." Andrew Cuomo did not find a place on her ballot, she said: "Cuomo's a creep."

Emma, who works in City-funded after school programs, ranked Mamdani first as well. "I hear the concerns about his experience," she said. "But I really want to give him a chance. I want to give a chance to big ideas." Cuomo did get some things done as governor, Emma said, but she didn't rank him. "I kind of feel like he disqualified himself with how things ended for him as governor," she said.

—Nick Pinto

Meanwhile, at the Flatbush branch of the Brooklyn Public Library, blame it on the mid-workday slowdown, or the demographic skew of people happy to talk to a stranger about what they were getting up to in the voting booth, but everyone Hell Gate spoke to was for Zohran Mamdani—even the aunties.

Lorraine Hall was rushing to a dental appointment, but stopped to say, "Listen, I wasn't going to vote. Because with this corruption, I can say the country, the world, is upside down." She added, "Oh Jesus!" in a Caribbean accent, before continuing: "What the hell is going on?" She said she supported Mamdani because she wanted to see young, new people in government.

Andrew, a bespectacled redhead, had his spiel ready: "Mainly, I'm excited for good, progressive candidates on the ballot. Zohran has a fantastic record and a fantastic platform. I'm also excited to rank Brad Lander. But mainly, I don't like Cuomo." 

Allison (a Hell Gate subscriber!) said she wanted to see buses on Flatbush Avenue speed up, and turned out not just for Mamdani but to vote for Justin Brannan in the comptroller's race as well. Nick and Reanna, a couple who recently moved to the neighborhood from out of state, said they were turned off by the fact that Cuomo didn't even live in the city until recently. "It sounds so stupid, but I want someone who lives here and knows the area, versus someone who is wealthy and is not in with the people," Nick said. "It's that basic." 

So they were for Mamdani and "the guy that he campaigned with," Reanna said. Lander? "Lander."

Renje Grimes, a longtime Flatbush resident, was also for Mamdani. "How can I say this? My mother's a child of the '50s and '60s. So every time I vote, I honor her and that legacy," Grimes said.

What issues were most salient for him in the day's primary? "Everything," he said. "I guess housing costs, because me and my wife are looking to buy a house, and it's literally a million dollars. And that's my family's house, with the family discount." He said he has friends who work for Jumaane Williams, and was excited to vote for him for public advocate. When it came to the mayor, he only mentioned one name.

"I like Zohran. He's for what I want."

—Adlan Jackson

UPDATE 1:11 P.M. | Election whisperer Michael Lange has some initial reactions to today's vote totals:

Here's what he had to say about the race in our latest edition of the Mayoral Spew, which went out yesterday:

Michael Lange, who writes obsessively and authoritatively about New York City politics in his Substack, The Narrative Wars, released his prediction today for Tuesday's election: Mamdani will win by less than 1 percent—50.07 percent to 49.93 percent—after ranked-choice rounds are counted. (Reminder: that isn't going to happen until the week of July 1, when the Board of Elections has received all of the mail-in ballots.) 

"It will be a very, very, close election decided by the smallest of margins—1, 2, 3 percent," Lange told Hell Gate. "What a time to be alive!"

We asked for his big picture thoughts on why Mamdani wins in his simulation.

"The Democratic electorate is skewing more heavily toward people who are college-educated and younger, especially in the Trump 2.0 era. And the segments of the electorate who are most fired up, they are Trump 2.0 liberals—people who go to the No Kings march—and young people who are just so captured by what Zohran Mamdani has done. Those two electorates are really powerful together," Lange said. "Cuomo's run this incredibly sleepy campaign. He has taken his support for granted. He has bled support from all working-class voters, except for Black voters and working-class ethnics." He added, "I think he will pay a price for that at the polls."

And what about Lander, whose campaign has enjoyed a boost in the final few days?

"Brad comes off as the kingmaker," Lange said. "He comes across as a very selfless person. Being someone so integral to stopping Cuomo is a phenomenal legacy."

We'll hear more from Lange tonight when he joins us for our livestream, which will begin at 8:30 p.m. Tune in!

UPDATE 12:57 P.M. | Cuomo's Polling Site on East 56th Street

At around 11 a.m., newly minted Sutton Place resident Andrew Cuomo cast his ballot at the polling site inside the High School of Art and Design on East 56th Street. 

Cuomo, who was with his daughters Mariah and Michaela, told a scrum of reporters he didn't rank anyone else on his mayoral ballot.

As he climbed into his black SUV, a group of teens who were at school to take the Regents exams laughed as one of them began heckling the former governor for the bagel order he gave the New York Times: a "bacon, cheese, and egg" on an English muffin.

"What about your bagel order?! What about your bagel order?!" the teen, a Bronx resident named Solange, yelled.

We asked Solange, who was standing with her friend Jenna, a Queens resident, what she thought of Cuomo, aside from his breakfast order.

"Doesn't he live upstate or something like that?" Solange replied. "It shows that he's out of touch with the people and, like, what the people are actually into."

Solange and Jenna are both 16, but said they'd vote for Zohran Mamdani if they could. They cited his electric social media presence, as well as his proposal to freeze the rent, as reasons for supporting him.

"He seems to be doing a lot, especially with the rent freeze," Jenna said. "New York is an art-heavy city, and artists don't make a lot of money. So I feel like something like the rent freeze is very beneficial for the city."

"Oh man, I'm not ready for when I get an apartment," Solange said with a laugh. "I'm living with my mom until I'm 30!"

When we spoke to a handful of voters, three said they voted for Cuomo, including a younger couple who refused to give their names or say much about why other than "to stop antisemitism."

Another voter, a senior named Marilyn, told us she voted "with my head and my hand," and marked Cuomo first.

"I think that whatever the things about him that are bad, he runs things well," she said.

Another voter named Janice, who was wearing a wide-brimmed hat and black sunglasses and was pushing a walker down the street, has lived in the city for 55 years. She wouldn't tell us who she voted for. "Well, I did not vote for Cuomo," she allowed.

Why?

"He did a couple things that were not very nice, that were not very good," she replied, declining to elaborate.

Another voter named Janice, who has lived in the city for 32 years, said she made Lander her top choice.

"I liked him as comptroller, I think he knows what he's doing," she said.

Was Cuomo on her ballot? 

"No he was not. I don't trust him that well," she replied. "He's too aligned with money."

—Christopher Robbins

UPDATE 12:39 P.M. | The mayor has officially cast his vote in Bed-Stuy, where he told reporters that he'd be ranking "one, two, three, four, five 'Eric Adams'" and that he is "looking forward to November" (when he'll actually be on the ballot).

UPDATE 12:18 P.M. |  And we have some updates from the Board of Elections!

UPDATE 12:15 P.M. | Some potentially bad news for Cuomo:

UPDATE 12:13 P.M. | We stand corrected:

UPDATE 11:47 A.M. |  We have our first tape measure appearance of Primary Day.

UPDATE 11:06 A.M. | Meanwhile, on the Upper West Side...

UPDATE 11:02 A.M. |  Some things never change.

UPDATE 10:21 A.M. |  East Village and Alphabet City

The big winner as polls opened on Primary Day in Alphabet City? The humidity. 

The biggest loser? The masking tape holding up voting-related signs, which had already floated down to the scorching sidewalks outside of polling locations. 

Outside of the Boys & Girls Republic off of Avenue D, election workers kept reattaching the signs to nearby fences, before retreating into the air-conditioned polling site. 

Only a few minutes after voting had started, it was already hellishly hot outside, and just a few voters were pulling open the heavy iron doors. 

One voter, a middle-aged Black woman who declined to give her name, told Hell Gate she had come early to vote for Andrew Cuomo. 

"I voted for my man Cuomo. I knew his daddy," she said. "He had to take some time off, but he's changed." 

Unitas, who didn't give his last name, had walked over from his home at the Jacob Riis Houses but was turned away at the site, because he wasn't registered as a Democrat or Republican. 

"I would have voted for Zohran," he said, though he said that regardless of who was elected, it wouldn't do much to break up the stranglehold corporations have on America's political system. "I'm skeptical of the process already, but I guess I'll just have to wait to vote in November." 

Nearby at PS 63 in the East Village, a more steady stream of voters was walking into the school. One voter, Robbie, who also didn't give his last name, said he was being sent to a different location by poll workers, because he'd recently moved apartments. He planned to put down Brad Lander as his first choice, and Andrew Cuomo as his second choice. 

"I want to support Zohran, I like the progressive energy, but he just doesn't have the experience," he told Hell Gate. "I ultimately want him to succeed, but being an executive is a big responsibility." 

He said while he knew his number one pick, Lander, had cross-endorsed Mamdani, he wasn't sure that Lander really wanted Mamdani to be mayor. 

"There were political reasons for the cross-endorsement," he said. "I'd be interested to see what was said behind closed doors."

Another voter, Bridget, cheerily reported that she ranked Mamdani as her number one, and then Lander. "I'll be crossing my fingers all day," she said. 

And finally, Hell Gate spoke with a voter named Sylvia, who declined to say who she put on her ballot, besides that she spent a long time in the voting booth looking up each candidate (she didn't know who was running ahead of time). 

"My top concern for each of them was if they'd actually follow up with what they said they'd do," she told Hell Gate. "I'm sick of politicians talking and not getting anything done at all."

—Max Rivlin-Nadler