NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- Mayor Bill de Blasio cast his vote in the presidential election on Tuesday, after standing in line with other New Yorkers for more than three hours.
The mayor filled out his ballot at the Park Slope Y in Brooklyn around 5 p.m. on Tuesday. He joined the polling site’s long line just before 2 p.m.
“Getting ready to vote in Brooklyn,” he tweeted about an hour before he reached the voting booth. “Long line but it will be worth it!”
At some point during his wait, de Blasio handed out pizza to other New York City residents who queued up for hours to vote, photos posted by his press secretary show.
Tuesday marked the fourth day of early voting in the five boroughs. Voters at many of the city’s polling sites have waited in long lines for hours on all four days.
At a news briefing on Monday, de Blasio said the Board of Elections was “clearly not prepared for this kind of turnout,” adding that the agency needed to increase the number of voting machines at its polling places and ramp up staffing to speed up the process.
“We need this to be a better experience,” he said. “You know, long lines tell people to go home — that’s just the reality.”
“The Board of Elections needs to step up,” he added. “This is a historic moment. They need to act like it’s a historic moment.”
The board’s commissioners on Tuesday voted to extend early voting hours this coming Friday, Saturday and Sunday to help mitigate the long wait times.