Queens sees low primary day turnout despite competitive races
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Voter turnout was low on Tuesday during Queens’ primary election day. Some polling sites, like Information Technology High School in Long Island City, went long stretches without seeing a single voter. Eagle photo by Jacob Kaye
By Jacob Kaye and Ryan Schwach
It was raining and pouring, and most of Queens’ polling sites during Tuesday’s primary election were snoring.
After a small tally of voters cast ballots during the city’s early voting period, similarly small numbers of voters were seen throughout Queens on Tuesday, as the borough voted in a number of contested City Council primary races, a three-way race for Queens district attorney, a boroughwide Civil Court race and an additional contested Civil Court race in Northern Queens.
But through the first three hours of voting on Tuesday, some sites in Queens had barely seen a dozen voters – even in districts with contested primaries. Others had seen well over 50 voters cast ballots, a high number for the day but dismally low when compared to past years, poll workers told the Eagle.
At Information Technology High School in Long Island City, where voters had the opportunity to cast ballots in what was considered one of only a few competitive primaries in the borough, only 13 people had cast ballots before 9 a.m. Between 8:30 and 9 a.m., not a single voter made their way into the polling place to vote in the race between incumbent Julie Won and challenger Hailie Kim in District 26. A volunteer with Won’s campaign and a volunteer with Kim’s campaign stood down the block from the school, no more than six feet apart from each other, both with campaign literature in their hands but very few voters to talk to.
Through 3 p.m., a little more than 20,800 voters across the borough had made their way to a poll site, accounting for around 2.75 percent of all active registered Queens Democrats – there is only one Republican primary in Queens this cycle.
Factoring in the approximately 14,000 Queens voters who cast ballots early, around 4.6 percent of all active registered Democrat voters in Queens had voted by late afternoon Tuesday.
Turnout was also low last year, when primary elections in New York were split into two as a result of a then-ongoing lawsuit related to redistricting. But even still, turnout in the first primary of 2022 was higher than the expected turnout on Tuesday.
In 2021, when there was a citywide crowded primary for mayor, turnout during the city’s early voting was around three times higher than this past week’s early voting period.
There were potentially a host of factors contributing to the low turnout – as a result of redistricting, City Council elections are being held just two instead of four years apart; there are no citywide or statewide elections on the ballot; there are no federal races on the ballot; and there are no open seats and only a handful of open primaries in Queens.
“It's just a smaller electorate, and that's going to hold across the city,” said Trip Yang, a political strategist.
The low turnout could play well for Queens’ incumbents – there was an incumbent running in all but one Democratic primary race this cycle.
“Historically, the incumbent usually does better with a smaller electorate,” Yang said. “And the other thing that it benefits are the campaigns that are very smart and precise with their targeting.”
But despite the low turnout in Queens, it still boasted the highest vote totals through the city’s early voting period and throughout the day on Tuesday.
That’s likely a result of Queens’ boroughwide race for Queens DA, and a handful of contested races in the City Council, where several Queens councilmembers are facing challenges.
The top of the ballot
Perhaps the most high-profile race on Tuesday was for the Democratic nomination in the race for Queens district attorney between incumbent Melinda Katz, former administrative judge George Grasso and attorney Devian Daniels.
Katz was hoping to ride her incumbency into her second term, something that local strategists seemed to think was likely.
“In [Katz’s] case, incumbents in New York City are really hard to beat in a Democratic primary,” Yang told the Eagle earlier this month.
After casting a ballot for herself in Forest Hills, Katz made her way around the borough on Tuesday, including a campaign stop at a Korean cultural center in East Flushing.
“Feeling good,” she told the Eagle at the campaign stop.
Her campaign strategy has been to use her incumbency and her record to her advantage, she said.
“I always believe that good government is good campaigning, as we’re going around the borough, people are thanking the office for the work they've done on guns and the gangs throughout the borough, retail theft, and really for the activity that our office generates in the community,” she said.
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz campaigns in Flushing on Tuesday, June 27, 2023. Eagle photo by Ryan Schwach
Katz acknowledged the low turnout, and hoped that the importance of the DA’s position, as well as that of the many Council races, would bring more people to the polls.
“It's always important to go out and vote, even if there's not a citywide or a statewide candidate, we hope people would come out to vote because it's an important position,” she said.
Several days before the primary day, Katz’s campaign filed a complaint with the Board of Elections, alleging that Daniels improperly filed her campaign and financial contributions, which the longtime public defender has denied.
“Transparency and the election process is important,” said Katz on Tuesday. “It's the reason that we have filings and the reason that we know how everyone raises their money and how they spend their money, and so I'll let the complaint speak for itself.”
Daniels, for her part, said that she felt good on Monday, and was editing her victory speech.
Grasso, a former NYPD cop and criminal court judge, said that he was feeling confident on Tuesday that his campaign had had an impact.
“We're not just sitting around, we're out there everywhere,” Grasso told the Eagle. “I'm feeling great. I think there's a substantial Grasso vote, in fact, I know there's a substantial Grasso vote everywhere because I've been everywhere, and everywhere I go, there were Grasso voters.”
“It is what it is turnout wise, we’ll see what the count looks like,” he added. “But I feel good.”
Regardless of how Grasso performs in the primary, he’ll be on the ballot in the general election for the seat. The former judge, who has raked in large contributions from a number of Republican donors, has filed petitions to appear on the November ballot under the Public Safety ballot line.
Queens district attorney candidate George Grasso campaigns in Queens on Tuesday, June 27, 2023. Photo via Grasso/Twitter
The three-way race for DA didn’t appear to drum up much of a response from Queens voters this cycle.
In the progressive District 26, voter Andrew B. said he voted for Katz but that he did so with little excitement. Instead, he said he cast his vote for the incumbent only because he didn’t like any of her challengers.
“Since we already have a former cop who's the mayor, we don’t need anymore in the DA’s office,” he said. “Most of the time, I’m going to vote for the candidate that is most progressive.”
Will McGinn, a voter in Sunnyside, voted for Grasso but added that he didn’t know much about the issues the candidates were campaigning on.
“Whether it's true or not, [Grasso] listed the groups that he supports, and that he thinks need extra focus and the LGBTQ+ community was on there, and I think that's just something that needs to be focused on,” he said.
Kira Aiello, a voter in District 29, said she voted for Katz mostly because of the DA’s presence in Queens over the years.
“Katz is fine, she’s always around, has kids,” she said.
Harry and Ellen Factor, a couple voting in District 23 in Hollis Hills, also said they voted for the incumbent, and did so somewhat enthusiastically.
“Everything she did we agreed with,” Ellen said.
“She’s a hard worker,” added her husband.
A three-way race to challenge Paladino
District 19 in Northeast Queens is the only district in the borough with an open Democratic primary.
With three candidates in the race, Tony Avella, Paul Graziano and Christopher Bae were each looking to secure a chance to unseat Republican incumbent Councilmember Vickie Paladino in the November general election.
Outside of P.S 169 in Bay Terrace, the usually busy voting site was quiet. Poll workers told the Eagle that only a few dozen people had voted in the first few hours of the day, significantly less than they were used to.
Graziano and Bae were both outside, courting last-minute undecided voters. Both said they were in good spirits going into the afternoon.
“I feel great,” said Bae, a former Queens assistant district attorney who also said she was happy to see people coming out to vote despite the weather.
Graziano, a community advocate who has run for office twice before, said he was “cautiously optimistic,” but happy with the amount of canvassing and outreach his campaign had done.
“We’ve done our homework, we’ll see what happens,” he said.
The turnout worried Graziano, who said that between the last day of school, the crummy weather and a planned fireworks show at Fort Totten in the afternoon, he didn’t expect an influx of voters at any point.
A rare sight during Tuesday’s primary election – multiple voters casting ballots at one time. Eagle photo by Jacob Kaye
But the voters, many of whom are represented by disgraced Rep. George Santos in Congress, who did show up to cast ballots in the district, told the Eagle that it was their concern for their community that brought them there.
“There’s so many awful things, a lot of lies, hopefully people will do the right thing,” said Mabel H., who said that gun violence and racial injustice were at the top of her ballot.
Farrel B., another voter, told the Eagle that if you don’t vote, you shouldn’t complain.
“You get people like [George] Santos if you don’t vote,” he said.
When asked about his motivation for coming out to vote, Farrel said “community,” and that he is looking for someone to “step up to the plate a little bit.”
A few miles away, at P.S 184 in the center of Whitestone, the quiet primary day continued. Inside the school, elementary school students celebrated the end of the year with a film in the school’s auditorium directly across the hall from where the adults cast their votes.
Kira Aiello from Whitestone, who was voting with her daughter Julia, said that she voted for Graziano.
“I don’t like stalwarts, the people who want everything to stay the same, that’s not what New York City is about,” she said, adding that she wouldn’t vote for Avella, who has previously served in the Council as well as in the State Senate.
“I think [Avella] takes things for granted,” she said.
Her daughter specified she likes candidates who she sees out in the community regularly, citing State Senator John Liu as an example. Both said that a big motivator in their vote would be someone who would fight the plan to bring a casino to Willets Point.
“I absolutely do not want the casino,” said Aiello. “It's parkland, and parkland should be for families.”
A rematch of sorts
One of the more active poll sites in Queens could be found in Sunnyside on Tuesday.
There, at the Queen of Angels Parish Center in the Western Queens neighborhood, a little more than 120 voters cast ballots by 9:30 a.m., and, like the rain, a steady trickle of voters made their way in and out of the site every few minutes throughout the morning.
Both incumbent Julie Won and challenger Hailie Kim, who are running to represent the area, got the memo. Both candidates stood no more than a block away from each other, catching voters headed to cast their ballots in the Sunnyside church’s building.
It’s not the first time the pair has run against each other.
In 2021, when the race for District 26 was without an incumbent, Won and Kim were two of over a dozen candidates running to represent parts of Sunnyside, Woodside, Long Island City and Astoria. Won beat out 15 other candidates to win the race and Kim finished eighth.
But with only the pair in the race this year, Kim said she expects the race to be tighter. Voters appeared to agree.
Will McGinn, a voter in Sunnyside, said that out of the 15 candidates to choose from in 2021, he cast a ballot for Won.
But in the past several months, both Won and Kim have come knocking on his door, hoping to get his vote. McGinn said that he posed several questions to both candidates and that while their answers were similar, he ultimately liked what Kim had to say.
On Tuesday, he voted for the challenger.
“I just liked her answer a little better,” McGinn said.
But just as there were former Won voters voting for Kim, there were former Kim voters voting for Won.
Andrew B., an attorney who lives in Sunnyside, said he cast a ballot for Kim in 2021. But after seeing Won around the neighborhood and watching her legislate in the Council, he cast his ballot for the incumbent on Tuesday.
“I like them both,” the Sunnyside voter said. “But Julie's been great – she's done stuff for our kids’ school.”
Kim has positioned herself to Won’s left, though both are progressive and agree on a number of issues. The insurgent candidate’s main criticism of the incumbent is her “yes” vote on the city’s budget last year, a fiscal document that included cuts to the schools and increased funding to the NYPD – despite later expressing dismay with the budget, an overwhelming majority of the Council voted to pass the budget alongside Won in 2022.
When asked about how she was pitching voters in the final moments of the campaign, Kim said she’s explaining that the “small parts where we do differ are very important.”
“I think her approach to the budget and mine are very different,” Kim said. “I made the same pledge that she did last year to not vote “yes” on a budget that would cut schools and libraries in favor of a higher police budget – I would have kept that promise.”
Won said that she is running on what she said is the relationships and trust she’s built with voters over the past two years, and in the years preceding them.
“I've been around for a long time, people know me and my record speaks for itself,” Won said outside of Queen of Angels. “It's one thing to say things about what you believe are issues and it's another to actually do it and to have a record. I have my record and people trust me.”
“We feel confident that we're going to win,” she added.
Kim wouldn’t make predictions on Tuesday but said that she was happy with how her campaign was run.
“We put in the work – that's all I can say,” Kim said. “No matter what happens, we've put in an extraordinary amount of work.”
