Election Day has finally arrived and Queens residents are hitting the polls to cast their votes in the hotly contested local and citywide races.
Early voting, which took place from June 12 to 20, saw a low voter turnout for Queens residents. Approximately 35,361 Queens residents turned out for early voting, making up 18 percent of nearly 200,000 early voters citywide, according to the New York City Board of Elections‘ (BOE) preliminary count.
But Queens saw the most absentee ballots requested of any borough, with more than 66,000 requested and more than 23,000 completed ahead of Tuesday, June 22, according to the BOE.
This is the first primary to employ ranked-choice voting. The new system allows voters to rank up to five candidates per office. If a candidate receives more than 50 percent of the first-choice votes, they win; but if no candidate earns more than 50 percent of the first-choice votes, then the votes will be tallied in rounds.
