By Kevin Duggan, Ben Verde, Lloyd Mitchell and Rose Adams
Many Brooklyn voters flocked to their polling sites to get ahead of the line before the polls opened at 6 am this morning.
Mayor Bill de Blasio and other Park Slopers famously waited several hours to cast their ballots during the last week of October, but on the morning of Election Day, many local sites — including the Park Slope Armory — were basically empty.
The Brooklyn New School in Carroll Gardens, and City Tech in Downtown Brooklyn also had little to no lines on Tuesday morning. One voter reported a 10 minute wait at the location by Empire and New York avenues by Crown Heights, and a north Brooklyn elected official said there were almost no lines at Williamsburg and Bushwick poll sites.
“We are very excited, there weren’t any lines,” said Moira Cassidy outside of Brooklyn New School. “No waiting at all.”
Cassidy went to vote with her daughters, Marion and Cecilia, and her husband, Peter. Marion, who was too young to vote in the last election, said wanted to cast her first ever vote in person.
“It’s my first election, so I thought, why not do it in person,” said Marion.
Outside the Park Slope Library, local Democratic District Leader Doug Schneider called this year’s turnout “astronomical.”
“That’s really exciting,” he said. “This is the fourth poll site I’ve visited, and so many new poll workers, especially young people, who have stepped up to come and work on Election Day. That also is really, really exciting.”
Lines were also tame at the polls in Bay Ridge, where voters will cast their ballots for a contentious congressional and state senate race. The polling site at Fort Hamilton High School saw a week of long lines during early voting, but the site had no line on Tuesday morning.
The same could be said for the Barclays Center in Fort Greene, where lines wrapped around the block during early voting. As voters went to cast their ballots, dancers with the troupe The Day Breakers danced to live music by the marching band, the Hudson Horns.
But not everyone waiting in line to vote was feeling celebratory.
“It is insane what our democracy has come to,” said Dr. David Sussann, referring to several stores in and around Downtown Brooklyn that have boarded up their windows in fear of potential riots. “They have to put fencing around the Apple Store. Never thought I’d see this in my life.”
This story first appeared on our sister site, brooklynpaper.com
