NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — Tuesday is Primary Day in New York and city voters are heading to the polls to select who they want as the Democratic and Republican candidates for mayor.
But, with the new ranked choice voting system, experts are warning New Yorkers not to expect the final results anytime soon.
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Susan Lerner, who heads Rank the Vote NYC and is executive director of Common Cause New York, is telling voters to have patience.
“Take a deep breath,” she said. “There's no rush.”
Lerner says the results will take more time than many voters are used to – but they shouldn’t blame the new voting system.
“It's not ranked choice voting that causes the delay in getting the results in— it’s the requirements and state law, which we think are actually very good for voters,” she said.
The delay is to ensure that the Board of Elections is able to count all absentee ballots. State law allows mail-in ballots to continue coming in past Primary Day.
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However, the city’s Board of Elections has said it will release first-choice results just after polls close sometime after 9 p.m., and announce a tentative winner.
If no candidate has more than 50% of first-choice votes, then ranked choice voting will kick in and the city will begin the process of tabulations.
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With 13 candidates on the ballot in New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary, it’s likely the process can take several weeks. In fact, the Board of Elections has said a winner might not officially be named until July 12.
The leading candidates looking to replace term-limited Mayor Bill de Blasio, including Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, former presidential candidate Andrew Yang, former city sanitation commissioner Kathryn Garcia and former de Blasio administration attorney Maya Wiley, had a busy day making their final pitches Tuesday.
Befitting his front-runner status, Adams brought his son to vote at P.S. 81 in Bedford-Stuyvesant and was immediately surrounded by a mob of cameras as he filled out his ballot and put it in the scanner. He did not reveal who his second, third, fourth and fifth choices for mayor were.
"I think that your ballot is a private relationship you have between you and your ballot and the number two person will be behind me after we win," Adams said.
After a bruising primary that will likely decide New York's next mayor, Adams was subdued and became emotional speaking about his mother, who died during the campaign, and his difficult childhood.
"I am a New York story and I hope every young man and woman that's out there that has a learning disability, I want them to know they can be just like Eric," Adams said.
Meanwhile, Yang looked like he was training for a prize fight, pumping his arms in the air and fist bumping supporters outside a polling place at a Bronx middle school.
"Let's go New York City! Get out there and vote! Let's turn the page, let's deliver real change to the city. It's s been waiting for far too long," Yang said.
Among the issues shaping the race are crime and policing as well as getting the city back on its feet after the pandemic.
Polls close at 9 p.m. Find your polling site at: findmypollsite.vote.nyc.
Absentee ballots must be postmarked by Tuesday.
Mayors, prosecutors, judges and city and county legislators will be on the ballot, along with other municipal offices.
The contests include one likely to decide who becomes the district attorney in Manhattan and inherits an ongoing investigation of former President Donald Trump.
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