Voters across New York City’s five boroughs turned out in force Tuesday morning to cast their ballots in the city’s 2025 primary elections, facing record-breaking temperatures to participate in what has become a uniquely competitive election cycle.
Despite projected temperatures over 100 degrees Fahrenheit and an even higher heat index, several polling sites still saw high turnout in the morning. Mayoral hopeful and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is relying on older voters who are more vulnerable to extreme heat to turn out on Primary Day, encouraged voters to cast their ballot early in the morning or late in the afternoon to avoid the worst of the heat.
New York City is slated to break a record Tuesday afternoon for the highest-ever recorded temperature on June 24 since 1888. Around midday, John F. Kennedy International Airport recorded a 100 degree temperature.
With 384,338 ballots already cast across Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, The Bronx, and Staten Island during early voting, Primary Day will cap off an election that has already seen record turnout. amNewYork visited polling sites on Tuesday morning to speak with voters about what matters to them and get a sense of the turnout.
The NYC Board of Elections posted on X Tuesday at 3 p.m. that the election has seen 710,858 total votes, including from early voting. Approximately 326,520 check-ins on Tuesday had been reported as of 3 p.m., representing about 85% of the early voting total.
As of 3 p.m., Manhattan has seen 93,924 votes since polls opened Tuesday morning, The Bronx has recorded 38,056, Brooklyn has seen 118,311, Queens has seen 66,915, and Staten Island has recorded 9,314.
‘Bigger than a presidential election turnout’
At the Sirovich Senior Center polling site in the East Village, polling coordinator Eva Heinemann, in the role for 10 years, said this season seems “bigger than a presidential election turnout.”
After the massive number of early voters, she said she did not expect as many voters to show up today, but they “keep coming.”
“We’ve had so many people that we had to get more privacy booths,” Heinemann said. “That happened during the early voting, too. There were too many people.”
The day started with some “unusual” hiccups, Heinemann said. The station had missing signage outside, two pollsters were a no-show, and a couple of machines were acting up — but everything was quickly rectified.
An analysis of early voting data by the Gothamist showed that the 2025 primary election has seen a massive shift in the city’s electoral makeup. A quarter of early voters were people who had never before voted in a Democratic primary in NYC.
Voters aged 25-34 drove the high turnout. The early data may be a good sign for Assembly Member Zohran Mamdani (D-Queens), a democratic socialist who’s amassed a strong ground operation with young volunteers looking for a new status quo.
The issues that matter
Voters pointed to a variety of local issues that drove them to the voting booth on Tuesday, particularly when discussing who they believe is fit to be New York City’s next mayor.
Though the Democratic primary field is packed with 11 candidates, the race is likely to come down to Cuomo and Mamdani. The divide in the election is stark — Mamdani has surged in polls, coming neck and neck with Cuomo, who may have stagnated in support, and both candidates have painted the other as being a dangerous choice for the city.
Judicial delegate candidate and member of the Village Reform Democratic Club, Maria Passanente-Derr, spent the morning canvassing on the corner of E13 and 3rd Ave. for City Council District 2 candidate Allie Ryan and Cuomo for Mayor.
“They’re the only candidates who aren’t trying to defund the police,” Passanente-Derr said. A lifelong East Village resident, she said she has seen a huge number of young Mamdani supporters in her neighborhood this cycle and is out in the heat to stand against “socialist candidates.”
“The thing about socialism is you run out of other people’s money,” she said.
Mamdani has promised to freeze the rent, make buses free, and open city-owned and operated grocery stores. His critics have decried his plans as unrealistic and socialist, while his supporters think his economic policies are an important step in making the city more affordable.
Outside the Sirovich Senior Center, Isaac, 23, went to the polls with the mindset of “anyone but Cuomo.”
As a Jewish voter, he said the controversies surrounding Mamdani did “give him pause,” but it’s that it’s a “complicated issue and conflict, and my own views are conflicted.”
Mamdani has taken heat for his refusal to outright condemn the phrase “globalize the intifada.” Cuomo has argued that Mamdani would be a poor mayor for Jewish New Yorkers, while Comptroller Brad Lander, a mayoral candidate who cross-endorsed Mamdani and who is Jewish, has defended the assembly member against accusations of antisemitism.
Isaac’s ballot was based on discussions with friends and the guide issued by the group Jews for Racial and Economic Justice. He gave Mamdani his number one vote for mayor and Harvey Epstein his number one vote for the district’s council seat.
Patrick Tate, 30, has lived in the neighborhood for six years. He said the changes he has seen and the number of people who have had to leave due to the cost of living galvanized him to get out to vote on Tuesday.
He ranked Mamdani number one and Brad Lander second. Mamdani took the top spot on the ballot because “he has specific ideas and actions that he was running on, rather than talking about other people.”
Tate lives in a rent-stabilized apartment, so Mamdani’s campaign to freeze the rent on those units “really spoke” to him. However, after exiting the polling station, he was so focused on the mayor’s race that he forgot who he voted for in the council race.
Yohann Smaeja, a father of two, said public safety is the most important issue for him this election. He told amNewYork he is voting for Cuomo, whom he believes will tackle crime. Smaeja said he and his children have experienced frightening situations in his neighborhood.
“I was on the 6 train, and all of a sudden, people moved from one subway car to ours, screaming that there was one person with a machete on the other side. That person never came to our car. I had my kids behind me, and I had my umbrella to defend myself,” Smaeja said.
He said that was not the first time he had a scare like that.
“The same thing happened to a doorman where someone with a machete threatened that person,” Smaeja said. “Nothing happened, but a few days later, that same person actually hurt a doorman on the Upper West Side. They call the cops, but nothing happens.”
A spike in violent crime rates during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021 has led to feelings of unease across the city. Though violent crime has since subsided, a recent survey found that New Yorkers still report feeling less safe in their neighborhoods than they felt in the 2010s. Public safety remains top of mind for many voters in the 2025 primary election.
David Christman, who has lived on the Upper West Side for 15 years, cast the first choice on his ballot for Lander, whom he hopes can provide the management skills needed to lead the city. Christman said the biggest issues in his mind are infrastructure and transit. He also noted mental health and homelessness.
“The needs of the mentally ill, we need to be doing a better job with those people and with the people who are almost living on the streets,” Christman said.
Anxieties over frontrunners
Outside Norman Thomas High School on E 33rd and Park Ave. after 10 a.m. as temperatures reached 93 degrees, a married couple from Murray Hill told amNewYork they both only voted in the mayoral and district attorney races.
The husband, 69, and wife 66, had identical ballots, giving Cuomo number 1, followed by Scott Stringer, and then Lander.
“He has some baggage, but Cuomo has the experience and the ability to lead,” they said, adding that Mamdani’s popularity with younger voters was concerning to them, and that the candidates’ stances on Israel were a deciding factor in this election for them.
24-year-old Michelle came out of the polling station frustrated that she had to go to another site, where she plans to rank Cuomo number one in the mayoral race.
“It looks like it’s going to come down to Cuomo and Mamdani,” she said, noting that her generation seems to be largely for the Queens Assembly member. She believes Cuomo or Tilson would be the best candidates to tackle antisemitism and safety on the subway, which are her top concerns. She plans to vote for Rachel Storch for the council seat, saying her values are most aligned with her own.
Amy, 42, voted for Cuomo, though she’s not his “biggest fan.”
“I wasn’t thrilled with the choices, but felt he was the best option,” she said.
As a Jewish woman, she says she feels incredibly unsafe in the city, and while she sees some good qualities in Mamdani, he wouldn’t be her choice for mayor.
“There are definitely atrocities happening in Gaza, but I would not call it a genocide; we’re in the middle of a terrible war,” she said. “I’m not happy with the direction of the Democratic party in general, it’s become almost anti-American. I’m worried for your country and for the West.”
Dey Armbrister, 35, said that as a native New Yorker, he always comes out to vote to ensure representation for his community, but this year, he was looking for a mayoral candidate who could bring about positive change.
“Zohran Mamdani really spoke to me as a fresh face,” Armbrister said. “I feel that there is usually the same faces every election, and his ideas and policies are really for the people.”
“He wants to make the city affordable for the people who are struggling,” he said.
The concept of a rent freeze was also a big selling point to him as someone living in a stabilized unit.
Armbrister cast his vote for Jumaane Williams again for public advocate: “He’s always on point and has done some great things for our community.”
Two avenues over at P.S. 116, students were eating their lunch in the cafeteria as voters lined up to get into the gymnasium to cast their ballots. Traffic at the polling site has been non stop all day, according to workers. Among the site’s voters was Anna Berenson, 31, and her dog Otis.
Housing affordability was her main priority in casting her vote, as well as a candidate who can standup up to Trump and ICE “and look out for everyone regardless of their status.”
She believes Mamdani is the candidate to do it, followed by Lander and Michael Blake.
“I see Zohran as a glimmer of hope in these crazy times,” she said. “His candidacy reminds me of the 2008 presidential race when Obama was offering something new and exciting.”
In the local council race, she said Virginia Maloney got her vote as she seems focused on housing and “less about scaffolding, like a number of the others. I’m not sure why that was a top issue for so many.”
Laura Merrill, 37, said she trusts the Working Families Party endorsements and voted down the ballot accordingly, giving Vanessa Aronson the nod for city council and Mamdani her number one for mayor.
“It would bother me if Cuomo got the nomination,” she said. “He seems like a middle-of-the-road and centrist candidate, and I’m a progressive person.”
Linda Mungia, a second-generation Mexican immigrant, former opera singer, and a teacher in South Bronx, ranked Cuomo number one and Lander number two. Mungia said she thinks Mamdani’s economic policies are unrealistic and that the backlash against Cuomo for allegations of sexual harassment during his time as governor are unwarranted.
“He wasn’t cheating on anybody like our current president does, you know, and men of that generation just do that. They’re grabby,” Mungia. “And he wasn’t that grabby. All he did was touch somebody’s back.”
For Mungia, the top issues are homelessness, education, and public safety.
“We don’t need more police. We need fewer police on their cell phones,” Mungia said.
Picking an opponent to Trump
The mayor of New York City, though a local position, is one of the most nationally visible local politicians in the United States. Most candidates in the Democratic mayoral primary have discussed why they believe they are the best person to stand up to President Donald Trump, who has been openly hostile to Democrat-run cities like New York, particularly in his targeting of immigrant communities.
“I’m here to make sure that things change as little as possible, because I feel like they can only change for the worse at this point,” said Roberto Cordón, who cast his ballot for Mamdani on the Upper West side on Tuesday.
Cordón said he felt Cuomo has been “compromised.”
“He is going to allow Trump to get away with things like what we’re seeing in Los Angeles right now,” Cordón said.
Cuomo has said that he is the best candidate in the race to stand up to Trump, and has even argued that Trump has “declared war” on New York City with his targeting of immigrants and attacks on government benefits. Mamdani and other political opponents of Cuomo’s have criticized the former governor for being partially funded by donors who have also supported the president.
Linda Hahn, voting on the Upper West Side, said she has become disillusioned with the Democratic establishment but that the race includes some promising candidates. She said an important task for the next mayor would be “rooting out corruption.” For Hahn, the next mayor needs to be able to take on the “fight” in Washington to make sure “we don’t get ICE raids all over the city and all that.”
Nancy Oatts, who has lived on the Upper West Side for 45 years, ranked City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams number one on her ballot, followed by former New York State Representative Scott Stringer, and State Senator Zellnor Myrie. Oatts did not rank Mamdani or Cuomo.
“We need somebody that’s gonna fight off Trump,” Oatts said. “I mean, I don’t want this guy in our business, in our money, all of that. So, you know, and I feel like Adrienne Adams is tough.”
Sam Eloom also said he’s looking for a candidate to take on Trump, and he thinks Cuomo, a “good advocate with this current federal administration,” is the right pick.
