We voted in a New York minute.
At polling places around the city ahead of the 9 p.m. polling place deadline, there were smooth-moving lines — and in some districts, no lines at all — for voters who masked-up, kept their distance and filled out a ballot for the next president and congressional leaders.
Thank the early-voting masses that endured hours-long waits last week.
“Everything’s been running fine,” marveled Janelle Benton, 41, of Harlem, a first-time poll worker on the Upper West Side on Tuesday.
“I think a lot of people went and voted early, so that’s why it was like that,” she said.
“The biggest thing people are mostly surprised about coming through here is that there’s no line. It’s like, ‘oh my God, I could have come here today, but I was out there in the rain for four hours.’ So a lot of people are shocked that there’s no line. But it’s good though, we don’t need a long line.”
Jordan Siskind-Weiss, 27, a paralegal who also opted to work at the polls for the first time on the Upper West Side, gushed about meeting former meteorologist Ron Trotta, whose remarkable battle with the coronavirus was featured by the Daily News.
He “was wheeled in on a wheelchair … carrying a sign that said ‘148 days in the hospital, and I’m coming home to vote,'” Siskind-Weiss said. “And the whole polling place clapped when he came in and he voted. He almost died from COVID, the doctors told his family that you need to say goodbye because he’s not going to make it,” she said.
“It was really touching … he kept showing us peace signs as he came out.”
Retired teacher Stephen Hosmer also waited for Election Day to cast his ballot.
“Yeah, because I’m not paranoid and I like to follow tradition,” said the 69-year-old Queens man after voting for Democratic challenger Joe Biden in the contentious national battle against President Trump. “Since so many people voted early, I thought there would be fewer — but now there are more. That’s a good sign.”
The sun had yet to rise above the five boroughs when the first New Yorkers turned out at 6 a.m. Tuesday to weigh in on this year’s wild race for the White House. While long lines were reported at a few polling locations, things appeared to move forward without too many bumps in a year where more than 2 million residents statewide cast their ballots before Nov. 3.
“I’m excited but I’m nervous,” said dog walker Lee Guzman, 29, of Queens, as she waited to vote. “I just feel a little ashamed of how we’ve shown ourselves to outside countries in the past four years. And I think that’s really important.”
The NYPD dispatched officers to each of the city’s 1,201 polling sites to prevent any Election Day shenanigans, with no early reports of voter intimidation, Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said on NY1.
Across the city, voters wore masks and kept their distance as they eagerly waited to vote in a presidential race unlike any before: The massive number of pre-election day votes, the ongoing pandemic, a nation deeply divided by four years of the Trump presidency.
Mexican immigrant Jose Nuñoz, 47, said the choice was obvious for him: Biden.
“Trump talks bad about immigrants and does even worse to immigrants,” said the Manhattan hotel manager, who came to the U.S. in 2002 and became a citizen nine years later. “What they’re doing at the border, separating kids from their parents — terrible.”
Hosmer agreed: “I support real patriots, not the ones who wear flag pins.”
The day was not without glitches. There was an early report of voting machine issues in Brooklyn, with Councilmember Kalman Yeger (D-Brooklyn) tweeting that the tech problems in Borough Park were resolved at 8:11 a.m. But any problems were not enough to keep voters on both sides from turning out in the heavily-Democratic city and state where Biden was expected to sweep New York’s 29 electoral votes.
At the Edgewater Park Volunteer Firehouse in Throgs Neck in the Bronx, the line moved swiftly as many of the voters simply walked over to the local polling place.
Retired firefighter Frank Myers, 43, cast his vote for the incumbent.
“Even though Trump has a huge ego, you have to remember he’s not a politician,” said Myers. “He’s highly inappropriate at times. He’s stirring the pot up. Maybe that’s what this country needs.”
Joann Delgado, 51, a Republican currently out of work and on disability, voted for a second Trump term as well.
“I pray that Trump wins or America as we know it will no longer be,” said Delgado. “Trump is for the working class people. Imagine the millions of jobs that will be lost if Biden wins?”
At P.S. 85 in Astoria, long lines stretched along the sidewalk with voters waiting for up to an hour. One voter reported an hours-long wait at a polling site in Greenwich Village. And up in Washington Heights, cobbler Manuel Merejo, 42, said he was voting for change.
“The current situation is very violent,” said Biden backer Merejo, adding that Trump brought “chaos” to the country over the last four years. “Looting, gun shootings … All of that harms the nation.”
Maria Aguaviva, 80, used her walker to reach the local voting venue in Washington Heights.
“I always like to go to my polling place,” she said. “I vote in every election here, [for] the state and [for] the United States.”
Fellow senior citizen Awilda Vazquez, 75, said she consulted with a higher power before voting in the Bronx.
“I was really debating it and I prayed a lot,” she said without revealing her choice. “Whoever wins, I will ask God to give them the direction to continue leading this nation.”
At Barclays Center in Brooklyn, the vast arena typically used by the NBA’s Nets was turned into a polling place.
Ngozi Nwogu, 27, turned out at the venue after learning her absentee ballot never reached the city Board of Elections.
“I vote because it’s a moral thing for me,” she explained. “There is obviously racial tension in this country, and one candidate cares about that more than the other.”
