New Yorkers vote with abortion, crime and other hot-button issues in mind

New York City voters had abortion, crime and climate change on their minds Tuesday while they cast their ballots for governor and other key local races.

Polls across the five boroughs opened at 6 a.m. and will remain available until 9 p.m., with more than 300,000 people having voted by 11:30 a.m., according to the city board of elections.

The race between Gov. Kathy Hochul and Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.) is by far the most competitive contest being decided, the one voters view as being most impactful.

“Our democracy is at stake this year,” said Reed McLaurin, 27, a tenants rights lawyer from the Upper West Side. “We have people across the country who don’t believe the last election was fair and we can’t let them take over.”

The office of the attorney general, state legislators’ and Congressional representatives’ seats are also up for grabs.

“We gotta get people in there that represent us and aren’t representing their power,” Thomas Spahn, an Upper West Side musician said. “We’re about to lose democracy.”

Spahn, 67, who owns up to having spotty voting record, said he’s become more engaged recently over the issue of abortion.

That also drove Manhattan public school teacher, Anthony Harmon, to the polls.

“His [Zeldin’s] whole stance on how he feels about a woman’s right to choose is a concern for me, as I have a mother, sister, aunts, you know, the women in my family, right. It’s a real important issue,” Harmon, 55, said. “So that’s one of the issues that most concerns me. I also think that he’s become like an echo chamber for you know, the Donald Trump administration that I’m not a fan of.”

Rep. Lee Zeldin, (R-N.Y.) and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul.

Louis Kleinman, a longtime Upper West Side resident said his major concerns are climate change and Zeldin’s denial of the 2020 presidential election results.

“On the top of my mind was the false narrative of the election steal,” Kleinman, 87, said.

Zeldin’s campaign has harnessed voters’ concerns about crime and the economy and even life-long Democrats are being swayed.

Brooklyn nurse Anna Jones cast her first non-Democratic vote — for Zeldin — at Bedford-Stuyvesant’s Public School 81.

“I’ve never in my life voted Republican, but she’s just not the person for the job,” she said. “I mean, she inherited the job.

“I want something different, rather than the same old thing,” Jones, 61, explained. “Let’s try something different. Either I was gonna vote for him, or I wasn’t gonna vote at all. So I just decided, ‘You know what, let me vote for him.’”

Jones split her ticket, though, and voted Democratic for all other down-ballot posts, including Letitia James for attorney general.

Voters cast their midterm election ballots at the Brooklyn Museum on November 8, 2022, in New York.

Crime was key for Katie, a 68 year old from the Upper West Side. She said her cousin was recently stabbed and she worries about bail reform, which Zeldin has focused on.

“If they’re not going to prosecute people, if they do something, then they’re arrested, then they’re out on the street again… there’s going to be another victim,” said Katie, who declined to share her last name.

“Who knows if he is even going to be able to do anything,” she added.

Voters cast ballots at Alfred E. Smith Public School in New York City on Nov. 8, 2022.

Zeldin’s ties to former President Donald Trump seemingly made him an unlikely challenger in a state that hasn’t seen a Republican governor in two decades.

Hochul dominated in the Democratic primary, and entered the general election race anticipating an easy re-election. But with tight poll numbers, her campaign has come alive in the past two weeks and pulled out the political big guns — President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and both Hillary and Bill Clinton — to stump for her her across the state.

More than 400,000 New Yorkers took advantage of early voting, a hopeful sign for Democrats.

Mayor Adams cast his ballot at P.S. 81 in Brooklyn around 10:30 a.m., sporting an NYPD hat and a jacket emblazoned with “NYC MAYOR” on the back. He said he has complete faith in Gov. Hochul.

“I don’t even know why I need that question. Kathy’s winning tonight,” Adams said after he voted. “I’m looking forward to continuing the partnership that we’ve had. So I cast my vote for her and I’m excited about continuing some of the stuff we’ve done.”

Harmon, the school teacher, who also voted at P.S. 81, was encouraged by the voter turnout numbers he checked before he headed to his poll site.

“I think voting in every election is important, whether you’re voting for president, City Council, dog catcher, you need to vote to make sure that your voices are heard,” he said.

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