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Last year, the juggernaut mayoral campaign of Zohran Mamdani expanded voter participation in New York City considerably. More people—2.2 million—voted in the 2025 general election than had shown up for any City election in five decades. The rate of youth participation tripled.
Primary turnout rose almost 30 percent compared to 2021, and 260,000 people registered to vote, which was a major component of his campaign.
These were victories Mamdani celebrated the day after he won an unusually competitive general election: "What left me with such great hope last night were the stories of New Yorkers who had never voted before, who had lost hope in politics years ago," he said, boasting about "having received over 1 million votes in an election that saw turnout the likes of which we haven't seen since 1969."
It is curious then, that Mayor Mamdani now opposes an election reform that would allow 1.1 million independent voters—people currently shut out of a major part of the democratic process—to vote in City primary elections.