Last Day of Early Voting Ahead of Tuesday NYC Council Primary

By Matis Glenn

Sunday will be the final day of early voting for this year’s New York City Council primaries, with several races predicted to be close due to expectedly low voter turnout.

There are City Council races in several districts which have a large population of Orthodox Jews.

In the 48th district, which includes portions of Midwood, Homecrest, and Brighton Beach, incumbent Republican Councilwoman Inna Vernikov is facing a primary challenge from Igor Kazatsker, in the battle for who will get the Republican nomination for the general election in November. Regardless of who wins, each will make it to the general election, as Vernikov has secured the Conservative party’s nomination, and Kazatsker will be running in his newly created Team Trump party. Kazatsker created the party, which has no affiliation with or endorsement from former President Donald Trump in an attempt to capitalize on Trump’s popularity in the district. Amber Adler will be the Democratic candidate in the general election.

In the 44th District, which includes Boro Park and Midwood, Heshy Tischler is challenging incumbent Councilman Kalman Yeger on the Republican line. Yeger will make the general election anyway on his own Democratic Party line as well as the Conservative Party line, but if he defeats Tischler in the Republican primary, he will be unopposed in the general election. If Tischler wins the GOP primary, he will square off against Yeger in the general election.

District 43, which includes Bensonhurst, Boro Park above 60th Street, and parts of Dyker Heights and Sunset Park, is a newly drawn district gerrymandered to be majority Asian-American. Wai-Yee Chan, Stanley Ng, Susan Zhuang are vying for the Democratic nomination. On the GOP ticket, YingYing Tan and Vito LaBella(the only non-Asian candidate in the race) are fighting for the nomination.

As of Saturday, 37,386 New Yorkers have casted their votes. Last year, when elections for governor were at stake, almost double that figure – 70,984 people – participated in early primary voting.

Former Councilman, and current Met Council CEO David Greenfield said that each vote will be essential in what is expected to be a low-turnout election. “This is an unusual year,” Greenfield told Hamodia. “There is nothing on the ballot except for a few races so we are expecting record low turnout. That’s why your vote will likely count 10 times as much. Take the time to vote this Tuesday. We are expecting that many races will be decided by only a handful of votes because of the low turnout.”

Primary election day is Tuesday; voting will not be available Monday. Thunderstorms are forecasted for the New York City area Tuesday, further limiting the predicted number of voters.

Early voting sites may differ from election day locations. Click here to find your early voting site. The same website will also provide voters with their primary election day voting sites.

Early voting sites are open Sunday from 9:00 a.m. until 5 p.m. On Tuesday, polls will be open from 6 a.m. until 9 p.m.

General Election Day is Tuesday, November 7, 2023