A Massive Early Voting Turnout

With an urgency and enthusiasm not often seen in New York, tens of thousands of voters showed up to cast their ballots in the presidential election over the weekend, waiting up to three or four hours at some polling places.

Across the five boroughs, 193,915 people voted early on Saturday and Sunday, according to preliminary results from the NYC Board of Elections. It marked the first time that New Yorkers had the opportunity to vote early in a presidential election. Brooklyn led the way with 61,315 votes cast, followed by Manhattan with 40,838, Queens with 40,278, the Bronx with 30,484 and Staten Island with 21,000. Saturday’s turnout, state Senator Brad Hoylman noted on Twitter, surpassed the total number of people who voted early in 2019, and there are still several days left in the early voting period.

The scenes at polling places in the city this weekend were reminiscent of the long lines and lengthy waits in swing states across the country as voters want to make their voices heard in a contentious and critical presidential election. Reliably blue, New York’s electoral votes will in all likelihood end up in the Democrats’ column come Nov. 3; but New Yorkers seemed to want to send a message to President Donald Trump, who had remarked during the final presidential debate Thursday that New York City had become a ghost town amid the pandemic.

During a press conference Monday morning, Mayor Bill de Blasio said the city’s Board of Elections needed to “step up” and create new early voting sites, as well as expanding hours to vote and increasing the number of voting machines. In response to Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who commented over the weekend that the long lines were a form of voter suppression, de Blasio disagreed, saying it was incompetence.

“The [BOE] was clearly not prepared for this kind of turnout and needs to make adjustments immediately,” said de Blasio. “If the board of elections says it doesn’t have the money, we will provide it. To the [BOE], your moment has come, let’s get this done now.”

Hours to Get Inside

The massive number of voters who showed up to the Jackie Robinson Educational Complex in East Harlem Saturday morning became a source of confusion for some voters as it was unclear at times where exactly the line to vote began. The line wrapped around the entire block and back again, resulting in folks waiting hours to get inside. Some voters questioned whether it was better to come back later in the week when the wait time might be less. Others occupied their minds with music and conversation with others waiting.

One voter remarked that she had never had a voting experience like this in New York, and while it might not be the ideal way to spend a Saturday, she said she didn’t want to spend another four years with the country as it is.

Another voter, Theresa, said she nearly headed home when she realized how long she’d be waiting to vote Sunday morning.

“I was going to go back home and do it tomorrow,” she said. But she and the to friends accompanying her decided they could handle the wait as they were in the much shorted line for those with disabilities. “We said, ‘You know what? We can do this.’”

Even so, the trio arrived at the polling place at 9:30 a.m. and were still waiting at 11.

“I thought I’d be at home having some bacon by now,” said Theresa.

“Ruth Sent Me”

On the Upper West Side, lines formed early at polling places on 102nd and Columbus Ave. and at the David Rubenstein Atrium - Lincoln Center at 63rd Street and Broadway. At the latter site, the lines snaked around a full city block before heading farther down Broadway.

One woman shook her head as she approached the line. “There are a lot of schools they could have opened for voting,” she said before she walked away.

Saturday was an endurance contest: Wendy Felton and Jason Ginsburg, who arrived before the polling site opened, waited four hours to vote.

Hannah Epstein and Lisa Deustch got dressed up to cast their votes. The two women drew attention on line with their gown-like black coats and standout jewelry. The back of Deustch’s coat delighted many in the crowd: letters made out of blue painter’s tape read: “RUTH SENT ME.”

“Ruth sent me too,” called out a woman as she passed by.

“Best Friends” on the UES

On Sunday, October 25, the line for early voting at the Robert F. Wagner School stretched from the school entrance on 75th Street down to Second Avenue, up 76th Street and down Third Avenue nearly to the entrance. Although the polls closed at 4 p.m., anyone who got in line before 4 would be able to vote that day. The day before, the poll station was open till 7 p.m., when the last person who got in line at 4 p.m. cast their ballot.

“A lot of people met on line today who are best friends now,” said Jill Eisner, a poll worker.

The usual wait time was three hours throughout the day. Leah, an Upper East Side resident, got on line right before 4 p.m. and brought a folding chair with her. People she knew had left the line on Saturday after growing frustrated with the wait, but she had to tolerate the wait since she was leaving town the next day and preferred voting in person, a sentiment echoed by others. “There’s nothing like voting in person,” said Susan Greenfield after waiting in line for three hours as well.

A Powerful Message in Soho

In Soho, early voting took place at the Shrine Church of St. Anthony of Padua. On Saturday morning, the line spanned about three blocks and wrapped around the under-construction church. On Sunday, fewer people were waiting to vote, and the time from lining up to casting a ballot inside took no more than 20 minutes.

Anita, 34, is a wedding planner who voted on Saturday and volunteered on Sunday by handing out free pizza to voters. “For the primaries, I voted in person and there was zero line whatsoever and I just walked in,” she said. “Here, I voted in person Saturday and was in line for like two hours. The line was four blocks yesterday. I think people are just excited and wanna get out there the first day, but it will slow down the rest of the week - it was a huge crowd.”

A 60-year-old woman, an Independent voter who works at a nonprofit organization, preferred not to include her name but had a powerful message. “I came yesterday, I waited about 40 minutes and I moved about one inch, so I left,” she said. “I came back today, it took start to finish - maybe 15-20 minutes. I’m not complaining, I’m just very happy to be here and after waiting four years, happy to have the chance to get a do-over. I’ve been waiting four years, once again, to cast a vote that may prevent that ‘person’ from being in the White House any longer.”

Jared LaCorte, 49, a physician, said, “I came today for the first time, a friend said it was a long line, and when I arrived it was all the way around the block past Thompson Street. I timed it from getting on line and finishing [at] the vote scanner - 21 minutes, so I encourage people to show up. People are spaced out so the line looks longer than in reality ... it would normally be. Once you get in there, the people are unbelievable; tons of people to help, tons of privacy, quick and easy.”

Organized Chaos

On Tuesday, the wait at the Church of St. Anthony of Padua was much longer. Two hours after the polling site opened at noon, the line exceeded those at Trader Joe’s in the depths of the city-wide coronavirus shutdown. The end of the line began at Sixth Avenue and Van Dam Street, connected with MacDougal Street, went to Houston, made a right for several blocks until Thompson Street, then looped around the block and met back up with Prince, a right back to Sullivan, and finally another right back to Houston. It took about 12 minutes to walk the whole line.

Near the entrance to the church, the line was inexplicably reversed, and the voters who had been waiting over three hours were suddenly looking at a line of people facing the opposite direction. Somehow, the poll workers guided voters through the organized chaos and into the poll site, slowly but surely.

Those who were still waiting read, looked at their phones or made calls to pass the time. Some brought folding chairs. A woman walked down the line with an open pizza box, offering a slice to voters. A poll worker walked up and down the line with a megaphone, reminding everyone to stand six feet apart, and that voters with disabilities did not have to wait. Another poll worker near the back of the line said they would be there until 8 p.m. when the polls closed, longer if there were still people in line. Tina Macavoy, 57, had been waiting for about an hour, and had been told she had about two more hours left. To her, this election means “change.”

An anonymous voter on Prince Street said he was getting cold but seemed to have no inclination of giving up. “We’ve been waiting four years to do this,” he said. He expressed frustration at the number of voting sites in proportion to the number of people turning out for early voting. Though he understood that the Board of Elections might not have the resources available to open more poll sites, he said, “when they do things like mail absentee ballots to the wrong addresses, I don’t feel for them.”

- with Evando Thompson, Sami Roberts, Scott Lewis Fischbein and Alexis Gelber