Gothamist
A non-profit newsroom, powered by WNYC.
Gothamist
Listen Live
News
NYC voters reject moving elections to presidential election years
By
Brigid Bergin
Published Nov 4, 2025
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 .
Getty Images
By
Brigid Bergin
Published Nov 4, 2025
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
New York City voters rejected a ballot measure to shift local elections to align with presidential election years, one of the effort’s biggest backers said Tuesday.
The Board of Elections reported that 53% of voters were opposed to 47% in favor, with nearly all the votes tallied on Tuesday night.
Grace Rauh, executive director of the good-government group Citizens Union, said she was “deeply disappointed” the ballot proposal did not pass.
The measure had been intended to boost voter turnout. But that argument was undermined by the more than 2 million voters who cast ballots in this November’s contest, the most in a mayoral race since 1969.
“We are encouraged by the unusually high levels of participation in this year’s municipal election. Preliminary election night numbers indicate that over 2 million New Yorkers cast a ballot this November, representing approximately 40% voter turnout,” Rauh said.
Citizens Union and other proponents of the measure said it was an opportunity to address the pattern of low voter turnout that has plagued city elections in recent years. In 2021, 23% of voters turned out in the general election for New York City mayor and other local offices. In the presidential election the year before, 62% of voters cast their ballots.
The measure received support from high-profile officials, including Gov. Kathy Hochul. Zohran Mamdani, who later became mayor-elect, said Tuesday he would vote against the measure but did not immediately explain his reasoning.
Opponents warned that combining the race for mayor with the race for president risked drowning out attention on local issues.
“If New York is going to be hell-bent on increasing participation, we should be at least a little bit concerned about making sure it’s informed participation,” Errol Louis, an anchor for NY1’s Inside City Hall, wrote in a column for NY Magazine opposing the change.
His argument proved more persuasive.
Before this change could be enacted, state lawmakers would need to adopt a state constitutional amendment, which must pass two consecutive legislative sessions before going before voters as a state ballot measure.
Tagged
Politics
elections
new york city
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
Dump truck driver hits and kills cyclist on 34th Street in Midtown, NYPD says
It's the latest in a string of hit-and-run deaths in the city in recent months.
By
Liam Quigley
Published Sep 28, 2026 at 4:15 p.m. ET
New ingredient mandated for Latin American kitchen, restaurant plates in NJ
The Garden State now requires that corn masa dough and flour made and sold in the state be fortified with folic acid.
By
Arya Sundaram
News
New ingredient mandated for Latin American kitchen, restaurant plates in NJ
The Garden State now requires that corn masa dough and flour made and sold in the state be fortified with folic acid.
By
Arya Sundaram
A Brooklyn jail cell filled with smoke. The emergency button failed, a lawyer said.
By
Samantha Max
Crews launch tunnel machines to dig first new Hudson River rail tunnels since 1910
By
Michael Sol Warren
NYC nor’easter dries up after weather service reports minor flooding
By
Ramsey Khalifeh
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 .