Final Totals: Only 3.4% of NYC Registered Voters Voted in Early Voting

Analysis by Gary Tilzer

169,879 or 3.4%% of the City Registered Voters cast their ballot during Early Voting in the 2021 General Election. The turnout was only 18.5% of the turnout in the June Democratic Primary, despite over 2 million mover registered voters allow to vote in the General Election. In the 2013 General Election that elected de Blasio mayor, only 1,060,099 13.4% of all the city’s registered voters cast their ballots. Election Day is this Tuesday Nov 2^nd the turnout would have to be very heavy to meet even de Blasio low turnout victory in 2013.

Why the Low Turnout in Early Voting?

1. Are the voters sending a message that they believe the election is over or that they do not care who wins?

2. There are only 4 or 5 seriously contested elections in the city – 2 or

3 are in S.I. one in Brooklyn. Many political pundits believe the low turnouts in the general election is that 95% of the winners are determined in the Primary Election.

A few New Yorkers worried about low turnout election and the fact that NYC has become a one-party city. Have proposed for years about moving New York City to non-partisan top-two elections (where instead of parties holding separate contests, everyone runs together, and the two leading candidates then face off in a run-off). Allow the two million moderate voters who cannot vote in the Democratic Primaries will hold off the left-wing take over of City and State Government

Mike Bloomberg pushed the idea when he ran as a Republican in 2001 but then sabotaged his own plan by putting it on the ballot in 2003, when there were no citywide races to draw in voters and as organized labor which have great power in who wins local elections, waged a furious campaign against his plan. And, sure enough, it lost by about 40 points despite Bloomberg spending millions to promote it.

To Get rid of elections that do not mean anything, NYC’s Voters would have to care about Democracy, reforming our elections, or there is no chance that a political class that is maintained power through them will change anything.

Early Voting Final Totals

City Wide Voted 169,879

Registered 4,992,792

NYC Early Voted 3.4%

Manhattan 47,928

Registered 1,070.164

Voted 4,5%

Bronx 19,855

Registered 772,279

Voted 2,6%

Brooklyn 47,547

Registered 1,565,209

Voted   3%

Queens 36,546

Registered 1,267,646

Voted 2,9%

Staten Island 18,003

Registered 317,494

Voted 5.7%