New Yorkers hit the polls Tuesday to vote in primaries that 🀅will decide who will replace Mayor Bloomberg in City Hall and whether di﷽sgraced ex-Gov.
Eliot Spitzer will get a second act in politics. Democratic front-runner Bill de Blasio – who voted at 7:25 a.m. with wife Chirlane McCrae at the public library in Park Slope – predicted none of the Democrats would garner 40 percent of the vote, which means the two front-runners would then compete head-to-head in an Oct. 1 run-off.
“As I’ve said many times we expect a run off , we’re ready for a run off and we’ve been planning all along for it,” de✅ Blasio said. “Our team is energized and ready to finish strong today then we’ll be up in the morning ready to go into the run off.”
In a Quinnipiac University poll Monday, de Blasio captured 39 percent o🌞f likely Democrati🐼c voters. If no one reaches 40 percent, the top two finishers advance to an Oct. 1 runoff.
Democrat B🥀ill Thompson cast his vote at 6:50 am with his wife, Elsie, at PS 24 in Harlem.
“They usually say the ballot is kind of a secret ballot, I’ll let you know, I voted for myself. I’m very confident. I think the reaction, the response I continue to get across the city of New York, from the people of the city, it’s been great♒,” Thompson said.
If de Blasio’s lead holds up and he doesn’t top the 40 percent mark, his likely runo⛄ff opponent would be either City Council Speaker Christine Quinn or Thompson, a former city comptroller. Quinn, who would be the city’s first female and first openly gay mayor, led the polls for much of the year. But her support shrank and negatives soared as opponents linked her to the vote to toss out term limits, allowing Bloomberg to seek and win a third term. Bloomberg did not endorse a candidate and de Blasio and most other Dems sought to position themselves as liberal alternatives to the mayor, most notably by loudly opposing the NYPD’s stop and frisk policy.
Disgraced ex-Rep. Anthony Weiner entered the race late and briefly did well in the polls before yet another bizarre sexting scandal rocked his campaign. City Comptrol൲ler John Liu is looking to become the New York’s first Asian-American mayor but has been dogged by a fund-raising scandal. He has been polling in the single digits.
On the GOP side, former MTA chair Joe Lhota has led the polls all campaign. The former deputy mayor to Rudolph Giuliani, Lhota pledged to maintain the city’s record low ܫcrime rates. His primary challenger is John Catsimatidis, a billionaire grocery store magnate who has shelled out more than $4 million of his own cash on the race. Catsimatidis💫 proclaimed his independence after voting with his wife Margo.
“No big corporation owns me. No𒁃 unions own me,💟 no individual owns me,” he said.
“My ღhusband will be the Fiorello LaGuardia of the 21st 🎐century,” his wife added.
But Lꦜhota, who voted at Mount Sinai Synagogue in🍬 downtown Brooklyn shortly before 9 a.m., said he thinks he’ll win the general election because the Democratic candidates have shifted so far to the left.
“I’m encouraged by the num🥂ber of meetings I’ve had with dissatisfied Democrats,” he said on WOR radio. In an appearance on Geraldo Rivera’s show, Lhota said he thinks moderate Democratic voters will flock to him come November because the party’s candidates “keep tripping over themselves as they move to the left.”
Lhota had to vote by paper ballot after three of the four machines at his polling 🌞place were not working.
“We’re going back to paper ballots, you’re kidding?” he asked. “We got to make sure t🌜hey are properly counted.”
But with register♕ed Democrats outnumbering Republicans by 6 to 1, most experts believe whomever wins the Democratic nod will likely be the next mayor.
Also Tuesday, Spitzer – who resigned from the governorship after a prostitution scandal – is looking to win the Democratic primary for city comptroller in a race against Manhattan’s borough president Scott Stringer.
Stringer and his wife, Elyse, held their 18-month-old son’s hands as they headed to the Hargrave Senior Center on West 71st🐷 Street to vote.
“This job is about integrity. This job is about leadership and experience. And for those who are thinking about what to do, I think we need a controller w🙈ho is going to have the backs of working people,” he said.
The Board of Elections, meanwhile, said there were problems at at le꧃ast one voting site, the Central Synagogue at Lexington Avenue and East 55th Street. Some people had to vote via affidavit because of the lack of machines. A spokesman said there were no voting machines when polls opened but that the problem had been corrected as of 8:40 a.m.
Poll worker Georgetta Freeman said “a handfulಌ of voters were turned away be♉fore the machines arrived at 7:15.”
Some early voters were incensed.
“I was shocked! I made the effort to vote early and they couldn’t get it together, not even with the old machines?!” griped Aileen Robrish, 70. “I got here at 7:30 and the machines were just arriving. I came back at 8:40 and finally got to vote. I think people are 𒉰disgusted wi𒉰th this polling station. I know I am!”
Some frust𝓡rated voters took to Twitter to complain about problems.
“@BOENYC unclear labelling in voting machines at Wadleigh HS in Harlem: each lever much closer to (wrong) nꦇame lower down list,” wrote @johntomlinson.
“My #PrimaryDay voting experience at I.S. 381 [in Brooklyn] was s⛄o chaotic, it literally induced a panic attack. @BOENYC, please get it together FAST!” added @StefanRingel.
The ag♚ency said it is monitoring Twitter and says it is working🤡 to fix any problems.
Polls opened at 6 a.mౠ. and close at 9 p.m. Experts do not expect a high turnout, and said this morning’s rain would keep some voters home.
Additional reporting ꦜby Yoav Gonen, Kevin Sheehan and Antonio Antenucci