Turnout in the first days of New York City’s early voting offered a glimmer of hope for former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo in his effort to rebound from a Democratic primary loss to far-left socialist Zohran Mamdani.
Early voting began Saturday. Through Sunday, 164,190 voters cast ballots, according to the Gothamist. The total was five times that of the first weekend of early voting in 2021, when Mayor Eric Adams was elected.
Voters ages 55 and above were 50 percent of the total, unlike the primary, in which younger voters dominated in early voting. Voters ages 25 to 34 were about 16 percent of the early voting total, down from 25 percent in the primary.
The increase in older voters could impact the results, as illustrated by a Quinnipiac University poll that showed Cuomo tied with Mamdani among voters aged 50 to 54 and four points ahead of Mamdani among voters over 65.
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“ You’d rather be the Cuomo campaign. This will definitely give them some encouragement,” Laura Tamman, a political scientist at Pace University, said.
Tamman said since the primary, the question has been: “ Are the young people who were so excited going to come back?”
“We’ll have to see,” Tamman said.
Will Mamdani win?
A Cuomo campaign spokesperson sought to put a positive spin on the turnout numbers.
“It’s been clear most voters don’t want New York City to be a socialist experiment with a diminished police force, no jails, decriminalized prostitution and a weakened education system that encourages mediocrity,” Cuomo representative Rich Azzopardi said. “This is the most important election of our lifetime and the turnout thus far shows that New Yorkers know it.”
Stephen Graves, president of Gotham Polling, said it was “unquestionable that the higher the turnout, the more it favors Cuomo,” according to the New York Post.
“The more the turnout, you pick up more people who are non-partisan and aren’t super-engaged and that favors the middle,” he said.
Graves said younger voters have a strong attachment to Mamdani, but he lacks broad-based fans.
“The reality is Mamdani has very deep support in the young, but it’s not very broad, whereas Cuomo has deep support in the 50-plus and they tend to show up the most,” he said.
Republican Curtis Sliwa, who trails Mamdani and Cuomo in every poll and resisted calls to drop out, remains a factor.
“What we don’t know really how many of Curtis’ voters decide that he can’t win so they are not going to waste their vote and vote for Cuomo, who they don’t like,” he said.
“There are a lot of Cuomo voters not voting for Cuomo, but against Mamdani,” he said.
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