It’s Primary Election Day across New York State as New Yorkers are heading to the polls to choose party nominees for various local offices. We will have election results for all New York City city-wide races, the Manhattan DA Democratic primary, the Buffalo mayoral Democratic primary, and a primary runoff for a special election in Alabama.
New York City
Today will be the first primary election in NYC where voters will be using a ranked-choice voting (RCV) system. This means that voters will have the option of ranking up to five candidates in order of their preference. Once the votes are tabulated, if no candidate has received a 50%+1 majority, then the RCV process begins. In each round of RCV, the candidate who is in last place is removed from the count, and their voters’ second-ranked choice then receives their vote. This process continues until a single candidate has achieved a 50%+1 majority. The RCV system will be used only in NYC in the races for mayor, public advocate, comptroller, borough presidents, and all city council seats. Polls close at 9 p.m. (EDT). We will have the election results from the election day vote for you here. Absentee ballots will continue to come in over the next several weeks, which will extend the RCV process.
First up is the NYC mayoral Democratic primary. The mayoral race is open this year since incumbent Mayor Bill de Blasio cannot run again due to term limits. The Democratic primary features a number of notable candidates including Eric Adams, President of Brooklyn Borough; Shaun Donovan, former director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) under President Obama; Kathryn Garcia, former commissioner of the NYC Department of Sanitation; Scott Stringer, NYC Comptroller; Maya Wiley, an MSNBC legal analyst and former counsel to Mayor Bill de Blasio; and Andrew Yang, a candidate for President in the 2020 Democratic primary and entrepreneur; as well as seven others.
The race for the Republican nomination for Mayor of NYC has two candidates. Fernando Mateo, the founder of the New York State Federation of Taxi Drivers, is facing radio talk show host Curtis Sliwa.
The Democratic primary for NYC comptroller is also expected to be a hotly contested race that is likely to utilize the RCV system. There are ten candidates running in this primary including State Senator Brian Benjamin, NYC City Council Speaker Corey Johnson, NYC City Councilmember Brad Lander, State Senator Kevin Parker, State Assemblymember David Weprin, and Michelle Caruso-Cabrera, a former CNBC anchor and 2020 primary challenger to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
The Democratic primary for NYC Public Advocate is the only city-wide race where the incumbent is running today. Incumbent Jumaane Williams faces two challengers in the primary for his reelection bid.
Our last race in NYC is the Democratic primary for District Attorney of New York County, known more commonly as Manhattan. The race is open after incumbent DA Cyrus Vance Jr. opted against running for a fifth term. The race features eight candidates including Tahanie Aboushi, a local civil rights attorney; Alvin Bragg, the former chief deputy Attorney General for the State of New York; Tali Farhadian Weinstein, a former federal prosecutor in the Eastern District of New York; and NY State Assemblymember Dan Quart. This race will not be using RCV, a plurality of the vote is all that is need to win the nomination.
Buffalo
We also have election results for the Democratic primary for Mayor of Buffalo. Incumbent Mayor Byron Brown is running for a fifth term and facing two challengers, including India Walton who has the support of many progressive groups and politicians.
Bonus Coverage: Alabama State House District 78 Special Democratic Primary Runoff
We are covering one special state legislative election today. Alabama State House District 78 in northern Montgomery County is open after Kirk Hatcher was elected to the State Senate back in March. The two candidates in today’s runoff advanced after neither candidate received a 50%+1 majority in the late May Democratic primary. The winner will face Republican Loretta Grant in a general election on September 7. We will have election results once polls close a 7 p.m. (CDT)