New York City voters set new record for first day early voting turnout

New York City voters flocked to the polls in record numbers on the first day of early voting on Saturday.

A total of 140,145 voters checked in at early voting sites to cast their ballots in a presidential contest that remains on a razor’s edge nationwide even as Vice President Kamala Harris holds a commanding lead over former President Donald Trump in New York City, according to recent polls. It marks the highest number of voters on the first day of early voting since the state began allowing early voting five years ago, and surpasses turnout on the first day in 2020 by nearly 50,000 voters.

The New York City Board of Elections announced the record turnout numbers on the social media platform X just an hour after the polls closed for the day at 5 p.m.

Brooklyn reigned supreme with 40,289 voters, followed by 38,237 in Manhattan, 31,671 in Queens, 16,462 in the Bronx and 13,486 on Staten Island.

Gothamist visited one of the busiest early voting sites in southeast Queens at the Rochdale Village Community Center, where the New York City Board of Elections website indicated voters waited up to 50 minutes to cast their ballots, to find out what was motivating voters to come out on the first day of in-person voting.

“I try to always vote early and it doesn’t matter what the election is. I know that a lot of people sacrifice for our privilege of voting,” Mike Shannon of Laurelton said. The 65-year-old retired police lieutenant who currently works as an elementary school teacher said voting was one of the ways he honors his father’s military service.

Shannon said he voted for Harris because he believed she was more qualified.

“We gave Donald Trump a chance,” Shannon said, adding, “some felons can’t vote, [and] he’s running for the highest office in the country, so that doesn’t really sit well with me.”

(Currently there are 10 states in the nation where a person convicted of certain felonies loses voting rights indefinitely, according to data compiled by the National Conference of State Legislatures. In New York, a person who has been convicted of a felony only loses voting rights while in prison serving a sentence for a felony conviction.)

Kersana Ward, a 36-year-old social worker from Rosedale, said she was voting to protect women’s health care, which was also why she was supporting Harris.

“She is not only an educated woman, but she is a woman for the people,” Ward said.

In what may be a harbinger of trouble for the fate of the ballot initiatives — including proposition 1, which supporters say will enshrine abortion access in the state constitution — Ward said she did not vote on the initiatives on the back of her ballot because she didn’t have enough information about them.

Tricia Haynes, an educator in her 50s from Springfield Gardens, and her son Trison, 33, went together to vote on Saturday. Neither wanted to name whom they voted for, but they insisted their votes did not cancel each other out despite offering very different reasons for how they came to their decisions.

Trison said he was motivated by foreign affairs, citing the ongoing wars in the Middle East and Ukraine. “And there may be new conflicts overseas,” he added.

For Haynes, the key issue is “basically Project 2025,” referring to the controversial treatise that the Heritage Foundation drew up as a blueprint for a second Trump administration (the former president denies involvement with the plan, though many of its authors and editors served in his administration).

Haynes also cited women’s rights and the ability to freely access abortion and reproductive health care.

“I have a 16-year-old daughter and I think it matters a lot for her to be able to make her own choice,” said Haynes.

Women of all ages said they were driven by a need to protect women’s bodily autonomy.

“I never said you can’t have a vasectomy,” said Alpine James, a retired member of District Council 37, the city’s largest municipal workers union. “Why are you messing in my business?”

The 78-year-old said that of all the elections she has seen, this one was most reminiscent of 2016, when Trump defeated former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

“That was a little heart-wrenching,” she said. If Trump wins again, she said, it will be “a dictatorship.”

Despite her strong feelings, James did not cast a ballot on Saturday. She arrived too late and the doors to the poll site were already closed.

“I’ll be here at 7 [a.m.], and if I have to, I’ll bring my little chair and I’ll sit there and wait,” James said.

Poll sites reopen at 8 a.m. on Sunday. Find your early voting or Election Day poll site in New York City here. Note that early voting sites in New York City are open weekends from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on weekdays.