Almost 2 million New Yorkers have already voted in the race between Zohran Mamdani and Andrew Cuomo, and the polls are still open.
NEW YORK — The divisive mayoral race between Zohran Mamdani and Andrew Cuomo has led nearly 1.75 million New Yorkers to cast ballots at poll sites and another 124,000 to send in absentee ballots — putting the city on pace for its highest turnout since the 1960s.
The New York City Board of Elections reported 1,748,698 check-ins through 6 p.m. today. Polls are open until 9 p.m. and the pace of voting typically picks up in the final hours.
The nation’s biggest city hasn’t cracked 2 million votes in a mayoral race since 1969, when 2.46 million people voted in the race where incumbent Mayor John Lindsay was reelected on the Liberal line, after losing the Republican primary. A whopping 2.65 million came out four years earlier to elect Lindsay the first time.
Just under 1.9 million New Yorkers turned out in the 1989 race, when Democrat David Dinkins was elected as the city’s first Black mayor. Roughly the same number showed up four years later, when Republican Rudy Giuliani unseated Dinkins.
The city hasn’t seen turnout that high in the quadrennial mayoral contests since. Just under 1.15 million votes were counted in 2021, when Democratic Mayor Eric Adams was elected, in a city of roughly 8.5 million people.
This year, voters have been energized by the three-way race between Mamdani, Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa. Mamdani’s potentially historic candidacy — he would be the city’s first Muslim mayor — and massive volunteer outreach have driven voters to the polls, while Cuomo has tried to counter by presenting the choice in dire, apocalyptic terms.
While the 2025 turnout will be impressive in absolute terms, the percentage of registered voters who will ultimately show up at the polls likely pales in comparison to races in the past. Some 80 percent of registered voters came out in 1965 and 60 percent came out in 1989. With 4.95 million active registered voters currently, turnout this year is unlikely to crack 50 percent.
Also, mayoral races, which are held in odd years, typically see significantly lower turnout than even-year contests for governor or president. Nearly 2.8 million New Yorkers voted in the presidential race last November.