From Arverne to Astoria, 40,000 Queens voters brave chilly lines to cast early ballots

Jamel James, 46, brought his 6-year-old son Jace with him to vote at York College. Eagle photos by Christina Santucci

By Christina Santucci 

By 10:30 a.m. Sunday, Glendale residents Barbara and Carl Kizner had waited for nearly two hours in the cold outside a drab Middle Village shopping mall to cast their ballots on the second day of early voting. They decided to stake out their spots early after seeing the lines that had formed at polling places across the city the day before, they said.

Behind them, hundreds of people stood on the sidewalk or sat in folding chairs in a line that stretched through the parking lot, looped along Metropolitan Avenue and reached up into an adjacent parking garage.

But the line, Kizner said, was a minor inconvenience after waiting four years to vote against her fellow Queens native, President Donald Trump.

“No matter what, I wouldn’t miss this vote,” she said. “You wish it wouldn’t be this long, but I did expect it.”

Behind the Kizners, Glendale sisters Betty Ann and Paulette Belair said the very foundation of the country was at stake, galvanizing voters across New York City to show up and make sure their ballots are counted. “This a battle for democracy,” said Betty Ann Belaire.

The four voters were among more than 40,000 Queens residents who visited the borough’s 18 early voting sites on Saturday and Sunday, with blocks-long lines forming in neighborhoods from Astoria to Arverne by the Sea. 

Overall, nearly 194,000 New York City voters cast their ballots during the first two days of early voting, according to the Board of Elections.

Hundreds of people wait in line outside the Variety Boys & Girls Club in Astoria Saturday afternoon to vote.

Jamel James, 46, said he arrived at York College in Jamaica with his 6-year-old son Jace at about 10:30 a.m., and at 11:45 a.m., he was among about 250 people waiting in two separate lines to enter the polling place. 

“Today was a good day for me because I didn’t have to take off work, and we got up nice and early and had breakfast and decided to come out,” James said. “The more people vote early, the less the lines will be on November 3.” 

Poll workers estimated that more than 2,000 ballots were cast Saturday at the York College site. A security guard outside the Middle Village facility said more than 1,000 people had cycled through Saturday.

Gladys Feijoo, 80, said the excitement was palpable as she waited on line outside the Variety Boys & Girls Club in Astoria. 

“It is better than a Broadway show, and I have seen quite a few. But this is something that has so much meaning, and it shows the real essence of the American people,” Feijoo said. 

The line at the polling place wrapped fully around the block and continued along 21st Street on Saturday afternoon. Feijoo and a few other senior eventually got to skip to the front.

Elsewhere in Astoria, dozens of people waited outside the Museum of Moving Image at around 3 p.m. Sunday, with just an hour left until the polling place closed.

More than 200 people wait in line to vote at the Jackson Heights library Sunday morning.

At 10:15 a.m. Sunday morning, approximately 275 people were waiting to enter the Jackson Heights library, and the line had snaked from 81st Street along 34th Avenue and onto 82nd Street when the doors had opened. Rubel Kahn, 53, estimated there were already about 100 people waiting when he arrived about an hour and a half before the polling place opened. 

Queens voters had mixed reactions to the long lines, which the Board of Elections could have alleviated by establishing more early voting sites, they said.

“I think this year is going to provide a blueprint for what it can be in the future,” said Paolo Trujillo, 34, who watied two hours to vote in Astoria Saturday morning. 

Voters wait to enter Korean Community Services in Bayside Saturday afternoon.

Gilbert Purdie, 59, arrived at the Jackson Heights library at about 8:30 a.m., and finished voting at around 10:30 a.m. He said the line moved quickly and complimented staff, but he believed a bigger facility and more poll workers would have been better. 

The long lines recalled past presidential elections, when New Yorkers waited hours to cast their ballots on Election Day. The state introduced early voting for the first time last year.

“Surprisingly, every four years we have to go through this,” he said. “Of all the things we have to work on, we can’t work on our voting system to make it more efficient?” 

Voters at several sites said they chose to do early voting instead of casting an absentee ballot by mail because they had more faith in the in-person process. 

Luanne Rozran, 60, stands in line at the Variety Boys & Girls Club in Astoria Saturday afternoon.

“We didn’t want to take a chance. We wanted to come in person and make sure that the vote is in,” said Whitestone resident Hasan Murad, 50, who was joined by his 20-year-old daughter Meliz at Korean Community Services in Bayside Saturday afternoon. It was Meliz’s third time voting, and the first time in a presidential election.

Nearby, 18-year-old Kelly Wu said he registered very recently just so he could cast his ballot in this election.

“I thought maybe I should do a service for my fellow Americans and join the voting process and the democratic process in general,” he said.

Other Queens residents showed up in-person to drop off their absentee ballots in a box inside the polling sites. 

David Kangas, 32, and Michael St. Clair, 39, said they worried about the postal service delivering their ballots in time with a postmark after several problems arose during the June primaries. The process for dropping off their ballots went smoothly in Astoria. St. Clair said.

“It took us longer to walk here than to drop off our ballots,” St. Clair said.

Further down the line, Luanne Rozran, 60, sported a facemask and a “Grandmas for Biden” T-shirt underneath a shawl. She said her three-hour wait was a small price to pay to cast her ballot this election.

“We are willing to wait four more hours not to have four more years of what’s going on,” she said.

For more information about early voting times and locations, visit vote.nyc.

Additional reporting by David Brand and Rachel Vick.