Gothamist
A non-profit newsroom, powered by WNYC.
Gothamist
Listen Live
News
Early Voting Sets Records In New York, Intensifying Calls For Improvements And Reform
By
Brigid Bergin
Published Nov 2, 2020
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
Never miss a story
Email address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .
Sam Aronov/Pacific Press/Shutterstock
By
Brigid Bergin
Published Nov 2, 2020
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
We rely on your support to make local news available to all
Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2026. Donate today
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
During the first presidential contest with early voting in New York, voters turned out in record-setting numbers for nine days leading up to Election Day, often waiting in hours-long lines that have contributed to growing frustration with the Board of Elections.
Listen to Brigid Bergin discuss the early voting period with David Furst on WNYC:
When the early voting period ended Sunday, 1,119,056 voters in New York City cast their ballots, and 2,506,685 statewide. That accounts for about 20% of eligible registered NYC voters and 18.5% of registered NY State voters. It also accounts for about 40 percent of the vote cast in the 2016 general election, according to the U.S. Elections Project.
With the high turnout and media attention, it was hard to ignore where the system underperformed. Here is a look at the good and the bad from the city’s 2020 early voting period.
Voters during early voting at the Park Slope Armory on October 27, 2020
Mary Altaffer/AP/Shutterstock
GOOD: New York City voters generally demonstrated patience and fortitude while waiting in long lines to vote. People helped one another hold spots in the line, and endured blustery winds and plenty of rain. Not surprisingly, the percent of turnout was highest in the boroughs with the most competitive races. In Staten Island, which is all part of the 11th congressional district along with a portion of South Brooklyn, nearly 30% of eligible voters turned out, followed by the next highest tally of just over 21% in Brooklyn.
Cumulative voting results by borough
NYC Board of Elections
BAD: New York City voters had to wait in such long lines to vote early. The New York City Board of Elections designated 88 early voting sites, an increase from the 61 sites used in 2019. The de Blasio administration had long-urged the city Board to add more sites, but at the same time, never successfully compelled some of the largest cultural institutions, who collectively receive half a billion in tax benefits, to step up to make their space available to alleviate the crowding at other locations.
People stand in line for early voting in front of The Brooklyn Museum in Brooklyn, New York.
Stephen Lovekin/Shutterstock
With less than 100 sites, the Board unevenly distributed voters among them, leaving some voters stuck in lines that circled city blocks and lasted longer than an average football game. Others breezed in and out of poll sites in 30 minutes or less. If an election is the Board’s Super Bowl, they fumbled the first nine plays.
GOOD: Shout-out to the poll workers and the Board’s newly designated line manager positions! The agency tried to prevent seniors and people with disabilities from waiting in the long lines. We received several reports of people who were swept to the front of the line by poll workers who saw them waiting.
We also received many reports from voters who said after they made it inside their poll site, and passed the check-in table, that poll workers kept things moving inside. On Sunday, at the Jackie Robinson complex in Harlem, poll workers burst into a round of applause after 100-year-old Dr. Thelma C. Davidson Adair cast her ballot in-person.
BAD: While the Board attempted to make it easier for voters to check in with new fast pass key tags, the early voting sites were limited to a maximum of 8 poll pads due to technical constraints. State Board of Elections Commissioner Doug Kellner was openly and repeatedly critical of how the Board prepared its early voting sites, saying, “I keep telling them, do the arithmetic.”
GOOD: After pressure from state officials and elected leaders, the city Board ultimately added an additional early voting site to alleviate the crowding at Robert K. Wagner middle school on the Upper East Side.
BAD: That did nothing for voters in every other part of the city.
GOOD: Lawmakers are now actively talking about ways to improve early voting and overhaul the Board of Elections. Deputy Senate Majority Leader Michael Gianaris along with Senator Zellnor Myrie, who chairs the Elections Committee, are introducing legislation that would require one early voting site for every 25,000 voters, which would more than double the number of sites across the city. Both Governor Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio have weighed in on the need to overhaul how the Board of Elections operates, stripping it of patronage and professionalizing the agency.
BAD: None of the problems that emerged during this past early period were entirely new, nor were the calls for reform. After the 2016 primary, when more than 120,000 voters were illegally purged from the voter rolls, de Blasio proposed a series of reforms including bringing in a management consultant. The city Board resisted and little changed. Despite Cuomo’s recent criticism of the city Board, he has served as the state’s chief executive for ten years and attorney general for three years prior to that and never attempted any structural changes to the agency in that time.
Changing how the agency is structured would require an amendment to the state constitution. In 2017, officials had a once-in-20-years opportunity to just that if they supported a Constitutional Convention. But many of the same elected officials and good government groups who support reforming the Board of Elections now opposed a Constitutional Convention then. Constitutional amendments that go through the legislative process must pass two consecutive sessions and then be approved by voters through a ballot referendum, meaning change would take until 2023 at the earliest.
GOOD: Lawmakers are considering other options to improve the agency in the near-term, including a bill that would empower the city Board’s executive management to make more decisions related to the day-to-day operations of the agency without seeking the approval of the ten bi-partisan commissioners, who themselves are handpicked by county party leaders.
The general election is Tuesday, November 3rd. Polls open at 6 a.m. and close at 9 p.m.; find your polling location here.
Let us know about your voting experience—email [email protected].
Tagged
early voting
election 2020
Brigid Bergin
Brigid Bergin is an award-winning senior reporter on the People and Power desk. She is fiercely committed to telling stories that help people engage and support democracy. In 2022, she hosted a live, ten-week call-in politics show ahead of the midterm elections called The People's Guide to Power. Brigid's reporting in 2017 included some of the first coverage of a political newcomer now known as AOC. In 2016, she broke the news of a voter purge in Brooklyn just days before New York’s presidential primary, triggering city, state and federal investigations. Brigid also guest hosts The Brian Lehrer Show and All Of It. She graduated from the University at Albany and the CUNY Newmark School of Journalism. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or Signal 917-723-4719.
Read more
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
MORE news
NYC early voting dips compared to 2025, but spikes in majority-Black districts
Mayor Mamdani's robust support for Gov. Hochul couldn’t quite match the level of early voting in 2025.
By
Brigid Bergin
and
Joe Hong
Published Nov 2, 2026 at 6:06 p.m. ET
NYPD officers shoot man after exchange of gunfire outside Bronx deli, police say
Police say the man threatened people inside a deli before exchanging gunfire with officers. He is expected to survive.
By
Giulia Heyward
News
NYPD officers shoot man after exchange of gunfire outside Bronx deli, police say
Police say the man threatened people inside a deli before exchanging gunfire with officers. He is expected to survive.
By
Giulia Heyward
Washington Square Park snowball thrower gets community service for pelting NYPD
By
Walter Wuthmann
Stabbing of Brooklyn runner believed to be ‘random attack,’ NYPD says
By
Ben Feuerherd
NYPD wants info from schools after 15-year-old Bronx boy shot and killed
By
Charles Lane
Never miss a story
Catch up on the most important headlines with a roundup of essential NYC stories, delivered to your inbox daily.
Sign upEmail address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .