Hardly Anyone Came, To Many Places Hard To Find, To Vote In NYC 2017 Primaries: Here’s How Brooklyn Voted.

In a nutshell – Voter turnout was abysmal, polling stations were poorly sited, and the results favored incumbents.

According to NYC Board of Elections, as of April 2017, there were exactly 1,010,433 active Democratic voters in Brooklyn (aka Kings County, for those of you new to the city). Only 371,995 of them voted yesterday, in many cases deciding who our new local reps will be.

The graph above compares voter turnouts in the different Brooklyn districts in 2013 and 2017 primaries. In Districts 35, 40, and 41, more voters turned up to vote. Districts 38, 42, 45, and 48 had more voters turning up four years ago. District 43 data reflect the fact there was no primary in 2013.

Gothamist argues this may have to do with various issues, such as new impromptu polling locations. DNAinfo reported that two polling locations in Sunset Park did not open on time because of inactive ballot scanners. Many people seem to also not know there was such a thing as the primaries yesterday.

Frequent changing of polling locations and little public notice caused people to trek an extra 15 minutes in Flatbush – especially difficult for the elderly and those needing to get to work on time.

As seems to be now a common practice, many voters turned up to find that though they were registered, their name was not on the polls.

https://twitter.com/Jilltension/status/907733614783279104

So here are the results:

Mayor: Bill de Blasio (Incumbent) was expected to win the primaries, and he did so easily with 74.6% (326,631) of the votes; his opponent Sal Albanese got 15.2% (66,636), Michael Tolkin with 4.7% (20,445), Robert Gangi with 3.1% (13,537) and Richard Basner (10,538) trailing way behind with 2.4%. De Blasio will be going against Nicole Malliotakis, a Republican in the general election.

Public Advocate: Letitia James (Incumbent) was also expected to win again and she did so with 77.6% (285,054) of the votes. Her oponent, David Eisenbach, got only 23.4% (86,901).

Brooklyn District Attorney: Eric Gonzalez (Incumbent) won with 76,947 votes (53.1%) with his opponents trailing far behind him. Anne Swern was second with 16,653 (11.5%); Marc Fliedner got 14,798 (10.2%), Patricia Gatling with 13,459 (9.3%), Vincent Gentile with 12,634 (8.7%) and Ama Dwimoh with just 10,490 (7.2%). Gonzalez will regain his position as district attorney, as there is no general election race for the position.

In the eight City Council districts with primaries, six incumbents were running and all six won. Districts 35, 38 and 40 were closer than in years past, reflecting dissatisfaction among a substantial part of the communities with their reps.

City Council District 35 (Bedford-Stuyvesant, Clinton Hill, Crown Heights, Fort Greene, Prospect Heights): Laurie Cumbo (D, Incumbent) won with 10,116 votes or 58.1%; with her opponent, Ede Fox, following behind with 7,304 (41.9%). In the general election, she will be going against the winner from the Green Party, Jabari Brisport, who won with 31 votes (88.6%).

City Council District 38 (Red Hook, Sunset Park, Windsor Terrace): Carlos Menchaca (Incumbent) won with 4,102 or 48.6% of the votes. He was going against four other candidates, with Felix Ortiz a bit behind with 2,777 (32.9%) of the votes, Chris Miao with 763 (9%), Sara Gonzalez with 507 (6%) and Delvis Valdes with 285 (3.4%).

District 40 was more interesting. City Council District 40 (Crown Heights, East Flatbush, Flatbush, Kensington, Midwood, Prospect-Lefferts Gardens, Prospect Park): Mathieu Eugene (Incumbent)

Mathieu Eugene – the Democratic incumbent looking for his 4th term won, but only because Brian Cunningham and Pia Raymond split the strongly anti – Eugene vote. Eugene won the primary with over 5,414 votes (41.1%). Brian Cunningham was second with almost 4,000 votes (30.3%) and Pia Raymond was third with almost 3,000 votes (22.4%). Jennifer Berkley came in last with 822 votes or 6.2%. Cunningham is planning to be on the ballot in the general election as a Reform Party candidate, so depending on the mood in the district come November, he still has a very good chance at being elected.

City Council District 41 (Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brownsville, Crown Heights, East Flatbush, Ocean Hill): Alicka Ampry-Samuel (D) won with over 3,300 votes (31.4%). Following just behind her was Henry Butler with 22% of the votes (2318), Cory Provost with 11.3% (1,197), Moreen King with 8.7% (915), Deidre Olivera with 8% (847), Royston Antoine 5.7% (597), Victor Jordan 5.2% (554), David Miller 4.8% (502), and Leopold Cox 2.9% (307).

City Council District 42 (East New York, New Lots, Remsen Village, Spring Creek, Starrett City): Inez Barron (Incumbent)  won with 83.9% or 7,253 votes. Her opponent, Mawuli Hormeku received 1,392 (16.1%) of votes.

City Council District 43 (Bath Beach, Bay Ridge, Bensonhurst, Dyker Heights) had both Democrats and Republicans running.  Justin Brannan, a Democrat, received 38.8% of the votes. One of his opponents, Khader El-Yateem who was very vocal about issues during his campaign, trailed behind with 31.3% (2,879). Nancy Tong was behind with 15.9% (1,459) of the votes, Vincent Chirico with 7.7% (707), and Kevin Peter Carroll with 6.3% (583).

https://twitter.com/KevinPeter86/status/907793035970433024

In the Republican side, John Quaglione received 1,789 votes (49%), with one of his opponents, Liam McCabe close behind with 1,153 (31.6%). Robert Capano had 543 (14.9%) votes and Lucretia Regina-Potter with 163 (4.5%).

City Council District 45 (Canarsie, East Flatbush, Flatbush, Flatlands, Midwood): Jumaane Williams (Incumbent) got an enormous mandate in his district – he won 90.5% of votes in District 45, over 8,000 more votes than his opponent, Lou Cespedes, who got 904 (9.5%) of votes.

City Council District 48 (Brighton Beach, Manhattan Beach, Sheepshead Bay, Homecrest, Trump Village, Luna Park, Brightwater Towers, Midwood): Chaim Deutsch (D, Incumbent) received 81% (3,563) of the Democratic vote, giving him a big mandate.

The general elections will be taking place on November 7.

So, how do you feel about who won?