After a lengthy, bitter primary constrained by the coronavirus and a contentious general-election campaign, New Yorkers went to the polls on Tuesday to pick a mayor to lead the nation’s largest city out of the throes of the pandemic and into a new political era.
After eight years under Mayor Bill de Blasio, voters are choosing between two candidates with sharply distinct visions: Eric Adams, the Democratic nominee and a former police officer who is currently Brooklyn’s borough president; and Curtis Sliwa, the Republican founder of the Guardian Angels, who has never held public office.
Mr. Adams, who has run a campaign tightly focused on public safety, is heavily favored in a city where Democrats vastly outnumber Republicans.
Many voters across the city said that his perspective on safety and crime — he has links to police officers but has said repeatedly that he pressed for reforms from within the system — had won him their support.
Carmen Nunez, 69, of Ozone Park, Queens, said she believed that Mr. Adams was the best candidate to address safety concerns. Others said he appeared to have a strong understanding of the pulse of the city.
“The way that he spoke, he seemed to represent a lot of New Yorkers,” said Julia Yarwood, a 35-year-old Bronx resident who said she was a Democrat.
If he wins, Mr. Adams will be the city’s second Black mayor. He has promised to lead New York in a more equitable direction, pointing to his working-class roots to suggest he would be an advocate for issues of concern to less affluent New Yorkers.
Still, in contrast to the message of economic populism Mr. de Blasio rode to victory in 2013 and 2017 (he is prevented by term limits from running again), Mr. Adams has made explicit overtures to big-business leaders, arguing that they too have a significant role to play in the city’s recovery.
After voting in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, on Tuesday, Mr. Adams wiped away tears.
“Because I’m standing here, everyday New Yorkers are going to realize they deserve the right to stand in this city also,” he said. “This is for the little guy.”
Mr. Sliwa has also been keenly focused on public safety and addressing homelessness, but on other matters and certainly in personality, he and Mr. Adams have significant differences.
And Mr. Sliwa’s campaign has been marked by antics and eccentricities that often drew more attention than his policy positions. His trip to the polls on Tuesday grew into a fracas when he tried to bring one of his many cats with him to vote, then fought with election officials who asked him to remove his red campaign jacket when they deemed it was a violation of electioneering rules.
Mr. Sliwa, a longtime talk radio host, has long cut a large figure in New York, with some remembering him fondly from his reputation as a crime fighter during the early days of the Guardian Angels. During his campaign, he has sought to draw a contrast with Mr. Adams, whom he has called elitist.
“He’s from the streets, he knows the reality of what is going on,” said Nancy Aldrich, 59, a Queens resident who said she was a Republican. “He doesn’t blow smoke in your eyes.”
Mr. Sliwa has highlighted still-simmering questions around Mr. Adams’s residency and his financial dealings. He has also tried to capitalize on anger in some corners of the city around vaccine mandates.
That dynamic, coupled with the possibility of low voter turnout, has injected a measure of uncertainty into the final hours of the race.
Other key races have offered more drama, including several City Council elections where Republicans are fighting to hold, if not grow, their three seats in the 51-member body.
Across the state, a hotly contested rematch in the Buffalo mayor’s race and fights for district attorney on Long Island also illustrate nationwide struggles over public safety and criminal justice reform. Taken together, the results on Tuesday may offer a snapshot of the tensions over the direction and identity of the Democratic Party in New York.
Julianne McShane and James Thomas contributed reporting.
As New Yorkers cast their ballots on Tuesday, a broad range of issues, from public safety to education, were top of mind. But some said what was most significant about the current moment was its potential to usher in history.
New York has had 109 mayors; Eric Adams, the Democratic nominee, would be only the second Black man to take the city’s helm if he wins.
To Djene Keita, 30, who is Black, voting for Mr. Adams felt like casting a vote for her young son’s future. “Just having someone for him to look up to and be inspired by would be great,” said Ms. Keita, who is from Harlem.
Mark Godfrey, 65, said Mr. Adams’s ascendance felt similarly personal, a sign of “subtle changes that are occurring in the U.S.” in racial equity and representation.
Mr. Godfrey, a resident of Ozone Park in Queens who said he was an independent, said Mr. Adams’s identity as a Black man and his experiences as a police officer and a victim of police brutality meant that he “understands what being profiled is like.”
Mr. Godfrey said he hoped those experiences would give Mr. Adams a unique and valuable perspective if he takes office.
David N. Dinkins, the city’s first Black mayor, was elected to a single term in 1989 and died in 2020. He has been remembered as a mentor who inspired other Black leaders to run for office.
Some voters like Esmirna Flores, 38, recalled watching Mr. Dinkins as mayor as they cast their ballots on Tuesday. The chance to elect a second Black mayor was “absolutely awesome,” said Ms. Flores, who is Latina and lives in the Kingsbridge area of the Bronx.
“It’s about time that we have more Black representatives, more brown people representing,” she said.
Still, others like Mable Ivory, 45, a Black voter in Harlem, said they saw Mr. Adams’s history-making potential as something positive, but noted that it did not play a significant role in shaping their vote or compelling them to head to the polls.
There were also mixed feelings among some voters, who appreciated the possible landmark, but disagreed with aspects of Mr. Adams’s platform.
Gabriel Knott, 27, called the milestone an “important step forward.” But he said he remained unsure whether Mr. Adams was the best option for the job among the many Democrats he beat in June’s primary.
“It’s really key to kind of consider what is he going to do for those communities in New York City,” said Mr. Knott, who is from the Greenpoint neighborhood of Brooklyn. “But I think that it’s really still significant.”
The tension between left-wing Democrats in New York and those who consider themselves more moderate, a rift that has characterized the state’s politics for years and was a major battle in the mayoral primary in June, remained evident on Tuesday morning.
In left-leaning New York City, Eric Adams, the Democratic candidate, remains heavily favored to win Tuesday’s election. After winning the primary, he declared himself the new face of the Democratic Party, suggesting his platform and profile would be a model for other politicians across the country.
But his positions received mixed reviews from voters in the city on Election Day, with some embracing him enthusiastically and other Democrats admitting they were hesitant about casting their votes.
Allister Klingensmith, 40, expressed some ambivalence about voting for Mr. Adams because he did not see most of his political views reflected in the candidate’s platform.
“I’d like to see more done with the environment, especially environmental causes,” Mr. Klingensmith, a Democrat, said. “I just don’t think he’s doing enough there.”
On the Upper West Side of Manhattan, Edward Horton, 66, said he supported Mr. Adams in the primary election, largely because he thought the candidate would be able to increase affordable housing and tackle the city’s homeless crisis.
Mr. Horton, who is Black, also added that it would be a “good thing” to potentially see the city’s second Black mayor.
“He’s a good guy, he’s respectful and he gets along with everybody,” Mr. Horton said.
Steve Rush, 65, a retired city worker who identified himself as a moderate Democrat, said he believed that Mr. Adams could handle issues of police reform with sensitivity — he was a police officer for more than two decades before entering politics — and without compromising safety.
“I think he has a healthy caution about N.Y.P.D,” Mr. Rush said of Mr. Adams. “We have to do public safety in a way that doesn’t hurt minority communities, as it has.”
But that same relationship with the Police Department made Shahreen Akhter, a 30-year-old registered Democrat in Ozone Park, Queens, skeptical that Mr. Adams would move quickly on police reform.
She also said she worried over how he might achieve his goal of expanding the city public school system’s gifted and talented program, which Ms. Akhter said currently widened inequity among students.
Ms. Akhter’s concerns led her to cast her vote for the Socialist candidate, Cathy Rojas, instead, she said.
Audrey Dursht, a Morningside Heights resident and a former teacher, said that education was her top priority, and that her vote for Mr. Adams was a reluctant one.
Ms. Dursht, 65, added that she felt this year’s slate of mayoral candidates was “not a great selection,” but said she did not want to see Curtis Sliwa in office.
The polls in New York City are open today from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m., and voters will be choosing candidates for mayor, public advocate, comptroller, borough president, City Council and in Manhattan and Brooklyn, district attorney. They will also be voting on five potential amendments to the State Constitution.
Here are answers to questions you may have about voting.
Where can I vote?
On Election Day, you can vote only at your designated polling place, which may differ from your early voting site. Check your polling site here.
You can also call 1-866-VOTE-NYC (1-866-868-3692) — or simply 311 — to find your polling site.
I’m not sure if I’m registered. How do I check?
You can check your voting status and party registration on the New York State Board of Elections site. Once you enter your information, you will also see a preview of the ballot choices.
If you cannot find your voter registration record, contact your county’s board of elections for assistance.
Is it too late to get an absentee ballot, also known as voting by mail?
Yes, Monday was the last day to get an absentee ballot. If you’ve already gotten one, it must be postmarked by Tuesday.
I haven’t registered to vote. Is it too late?
Yes. But register to vote in future elections here.
Will interpreters be available at polling sites?
Anyone can bring their own interpreter to a polling site if needed, as long as the interpreter is not the voter’s employer or union representative.
The Board of Elections provides interpreters and materials in Spanish, Chinese, Korean and Bengali at select sites, and interpreters are available in a wider array of languages at some sites through the Civic Engagement Commission. Here’s the full list of which interpreters are scheduled to be at different sites.
Are the voting sites accessible to all?
The sites are supposed to be accessible to all voters, though a report earlier this year found many shortcomings in a survey of Manhattan locations. Voters who are visually impaired or have a disability that makes it difficult to use a pen can request ballot-marking devices that utilize audio, touch-screens, Braille and other modes.
What about people with felony convictions?
The state enacted a law in the spring restoring voting rights to people convicted of felonies who have been released on parole. People released on probation had generally already been allowed to vote. Those still incarcerated for felonies cannot vote.
Will there be ranked-choice voting?
No. Ranked-choice voting is reserved for primary and special elections for city office.
Will there be long lines?
Turnout is expected to be low, and many have already cast their ballots in early voting or by mail. But never say never.
Does voting end exactly at 9 p.m.?
No. You have the right to vote as long as you are in line by 9 p.m.
Curtis Sliwa brought a special guest with him to vote on Tuesday: Gizmo, one of the 17 cats he lives with in a studio apartment.
But Gizmo was denied entry to the polling site, on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, and Mr. Sliwa, the Republican nominee for mayor, was irate.
More problems soon followed, and Mr. Sliwa openly quarreled with election officials, shouting: “Arrest me!” when they asked him to take off a red jacket with his name on it — an apparent violation of electioneering rules.
In a general election match-up against Eric Adams that has provided relatively little drama, Mr. Sliwa’s visit to the polls created quite a stir.
His ballot jammed in the scanning machine, and the machine had to be repaired. An election worker hurled an expletive at Mr. Sliwa while asking him to leave.
“They couldn’t have been more hostile,” Mr. Sliwa said as he left the polling site, at Frank McCourt High School, more than an hour later and was reunited with Gizmo, who was being watched by a staffer.
His Democratic opponent, Mr. Adams, is heavily favored to win in a city where Democrats outnumber Republicans by nearly seven to one.
But Mr. Sliwa has received perhaps the most attention for his army of rescue cats and his animal welfare platform, and he sought to take advantage of that during his trip to the polls.
Gizmo peeked out from under a red blanket as Mr. Sliwa described how he was almost euthanized after getting a fungus.
“Gizmo was on the kill list,” Mr. Sliwa said. “Thank God my wife was able to save Gizmo.”
Mr. Sliwa, who was hit by a taxi on Friday, wore a sling on his left arm. He said he was in pain from the accident, but that he was more concerned for city workers who were placed on unpaid leave this week for refusing to get vaccinated — an issue he has increasingly focused on during the final week of the campaign.
“If I’m fortunate enough to be elected mayor, on Jan. 2, I will roll back those mandates,” he said.
Eric Adams began a day that could see him become only the second Black mayor of New York City by casting his own vote just after dawn, with a framed photograph of his late mother cradled under his arm.
Standing outside Public School 81 in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood after he voted, Mr. Adams grew emotional. He traced his own improbable rise to become the overwhelming favorite in Tuesday’s election, as a working-class mother’s son who battled dyslexia and near-homelessness to become a police officer, state senator and Brooklyn borough president.
“We won already,” he said, wiping away tears. “I’m not supposed to be standing here. But because I’m standing here, everyday New Yorkers are going to realize they deserve the right to stand in this city also. This is for the little guy.”
Mr. Adams declined to weigh in on Mayor Bill de Blasio’s vaccine mandate for city workers, a far-reaching requirement that appeared to be effective at encouraging vaccination but also antagonized key unions and cast a shadow over the last days of the campaign.
Mr. Adams has been an outspoken proponent of vaccination, but his Republican opponent, Curtis Sliwa, had sought to use the mandate to stir up discontent with Democratic leadership on the eve of Election Day.
“I’m not going to get in the way of the very dangerous situation we are in right now and Monday-morning-quarterback the mayor and the union heads,” Mr. Adams told reporters. “They need to come together.”
Instead, Mr. Adams steered questions back to the themes that animated his campaign and powered his narrow victory in the crowded June Democratic primary. He painted a dire picture of New York City “battered and beaten” by violence, a pandemic and economic malaise, but promised to return the city and the Democratic Party to its working-class roots.
“The policies that I ran on, they were clear. It’s about being safe. It’s about working on behalf of blue-collar people,” Mr. Adams said. “If we abandon blue-collar Americans we’re going to lose our party. I don’t believe we’re going to do that.”
Later, in Crown Heights, where he snapped selfies for an hour with voters, Mr. Adams fielded a barrage of constituent feedback as if he was already mayor. He assured one woman he would push to set up designated marijuana smoking areas to limit the odor for nonsmokers. He told another resident he hoped to expand drumline programs for city teens.
“Don’t forget Flatbush,” shouted a passer-by who stressed the need for affordable housing in fast-gentrifying Brooklyn neighborhoods.
There was plenty of levity, too. Mr. Adams bumped fists and made promises with a wide grin. He told one couple he planned to get a dog as soon as he became mayor. When a man identifying himself as Mr. Adams’s former D.J. strolled up, Mr. Adams implored, “Let them know I had some good dance moves!”
Alvin Bragg, the Democratic nominee for Manhattan district attorney, voted in Harlem on Tuesday morning, the neighborhood where he has lived most of his life and that has served as the constant backdrop of his campaign over the last two years.
Mr. Bragg, a former federal prosecutor who is heavily favored to beat his Republican opponent, Thomas Kenniff, was welcomed by a phalanx of photographers at the Wyatt T. Walker senior housing building on Frederick Douglass Boulevard.
Inside, a handful of voters streamed in and out of a small room filled with voting booths. “Is someone important voting right now?” one asked.
Mr. Bragg, wearing a pinstriped suit, was accompanied by his wife, Jamila Ponton Bragg. “I’ve never voted in front of a crowd before,” he said, after filling out his ballot.
Afterward, on the sidewalk, Mr. Bragg reflected on the past two years, during which he has explained how his personal experiences having had a gun pointed at him — by both the police and civilians — equipped him to consider public safety and fairness in equal measure.
“If we don’t have police accountability, we won’t have safety,” he said on Tuesday.
He said that voting for himself, the first time he has done so, had been humbling.
“Just to be engaged in our democracy from this new perspective has been so important to me, so meaningful on a personal level,” he said, adding that the right to vote was under attack around the country.
Mr. Kenniff, a resident of Oyster Bay on Long Island, will not be able to vote for himself in Manhattan. He said that he planned to vote on Long Island later in the day.
After voting, Mr. Bragg drove to a polling place on 134th Street, where he was greeted by Jumaane D. Williams, the city public advocate; and Cordell Cleare, a Democratic State Senate candidate.
Upon seeing Mr. Bragg, Mr. Williams offered an enthusiastic greeting: “The D.A. is here!”
The winner of Tuesday’s election for Manhattan district attorney will become only the third person to hold the position in more than 40 years, taking over a prosecutor’s office that is one of the most prominent in the country.
The district attorney’s office handles tens of thousands of cases a year and is conducting a number of high-profile investigations, including one into former President Donald J. Trump and his family business that has resulted in the indictment of the company and one of its top executives.
If Alvin Bragg, the heavily favored Democratic nominee, prevails, he will become the first Black head of the Manhattan district attorney’s office. Mr. Bragg, a former federal prosecutor and a chief deputy at the New York State attorney general’s office, has throughout his campaign drawn on his biography to explain his policies, which he has said balance public safety with fairness for all defendants.
The office prosecutes a disproportionate number of Black men, and many of Mr. Bragg’s supporters have said that his personal experiences would help transform its work, moving its focus away from low-level crimes and toward gun trafficking, economic crime and public corruption.
His Republican opponent, Thomas Kenniff, a veteran of the Iraq war and a defense lawyer, provides a sharp contrast: Mr. Kenniff is looking to crack down on low-level misdemeanors including fare-beating and graffiti. He believes that doing so will lower the overall crime rate.
Mr. Kenniff, who was a longtime resident of Manhattan before moving to Long Island several years ago, has said he would move back to the city if he were to win on Tuesday.
Mr. Bragg has said that in his time at the attorney general’s office, he sued the Trump administration “more than 100 times,” but he has also said that those cases were separate from the district attorney’s investigation that he would inherit.
Mr. Kenniff said that if he were to find that the former president had committed any crime, he would “absolutely” prosecute the case, and that he did not agree with Mr. Trump’s contention that the investigation was a form of political persecution.
There are five proposed constitutional amendments on the ballot, asking voters to decide on measures involving legislative redistricting, changes to voting laws, environmental policy and New York City’s civil courts. Those that are approved would take effect on Jan. 1, 2022.
Here’s a quick rundown of the five ballot measures.
1. Changes to the state’s redistricting process
This measure involves the drawing of legislative maps, which occurs every 10 years. It also proposes other changes such as capping the number of state senators at 63 and counting incarcerated people at their last place of residence rather than where they are detained.
Under the measure, only a simple majority vote among state lawmakers — rather than the current two-thirds — would be required to pass redistricting plans. Opponents have argued this change could diminish a minority party’s voting power, though others have said it’s too early to predict that.
2. An environmental rights amendment
This measure would give New Yorkers a constitutional right to clean air, water and a “healthful environment.” The proposal language is vague on what a “healthful environment” is or how the standard would be legally enforced.
Critics have cited the measure’s broad language as a concern, arguing that the lack of specificity could lead to unnecessary lawsuits. But environmental advocates have said the proposal’s language only poses a risk to those who may be polluting the environment.
3. A push to allow same-day voter registration
The measure, one of two ballot proposals related to voting rights, would eliminate a rule that requires voters to register at least 10 days before an election.
If passed, the measure would make it possible for state lawmakers to adopt same-day voter registration, something 20 states already have done. This measure would be particularly beneficial to voters who do not start paying attention to local politics until late in the election cycle, supporters have said.
4. Making it easier to cast absentee ballots
The second proposed change to the voting process would erase the requirement that those who request absentee ballots explain why they need them.
Under current law, mail-in ballots are only allowed for voters who expect to be away on Election Day, or who have an illness or disability that would prevent them from voting in person.
5. Changes to New York City’s civil courts
This measure would double the monetary limit for claims filed in New York City’s civil courts from $25,000 to $50,000. This would enable the courts to consider more small claims, reducing the caseload for the state’s Supreme Court.
Although the change would be likely to increase the efficiency with which lawsuits are resolved, it might also increase the workload for the city’s understaffed civil courts.
City Council District 32, which has been held by Eric A. Ulrich since 2009, is a political rarity: It is the only Republican-held Council seat in Queens. In fact, Mr. Ulrich is the only Republican elected to public office in the borough.
The race to succeed Mr. Ulrich, accordingly, attracted attention from across the political spectrum. The contest pits Felicia Singh, a Democrat and teacher, against Joann Ariola, a longtime civic leader and the chairwoman of the Queens Republican Party.
It is something of a test of the enduring power of the Republican Party in Queens. While the county has long leaned Democratic, it is still home to roughly 140,000 registered Republicans, the most of any borough.
District 32 sits in southeast Queens, spanning parts of many different neighborhoods around Jamaica Bay, from the western Rockaways up through Howard Beach, and into Ozone Park, Woodhaven and Richmond Hill. While the southern portion includes white conservative strongholds like Breezy Point, the northern end skews Democratic and includes large communities of South Asian and Caribbean immigrants.
In Ozone Park, which lies in the northern part of the district, Rezbana Alam, 36, said on Tuesday she had voted for Ms. Singh. Ms. Alam, a Democrat and full-time parent, said that she believed Ms. Singh could make the neighborhood safer. Her public safety proposals include reallocating funding from the police budget to violence-intervention and mental health programs.
Ms. Singh, who grew up in Ozone Park and has Indo-Caribbean roots, is among several candidates who could become the first people of South Asian descent elected to the council. She would also be the first nonwhite representative of District 32.
Ms. Alam said that Ms. Singh had visited her house while campaigning and seemed “very open-minded.”
But Ms. Ariola’s tough-on-crime platform has resonated with voters who are frustrated with Mayor Bill de Blasio and the national Democratic Party. Ms. Ariola has called the city “a derailed train” and strongly criticized bail-reform measures and cuts in police funding.
Eddie Rivera, 66, a retiree who also lives in Ozone Park and is not registered with either party, echoed those concerns, saying Democrats “have lost their way.” He called Ms. Ariola’s platform “common sense.”
Zamil Ahmed, a 41-year-old server who lives in the neighborhood, is a registered Democrat, but he blamed the party for a rise in gun violence and said that quality of life had declined.
“It’s like the whole city is almost destroyed,” he said. Ms. Ariola picked up his vote.
In New York City, a global beacon that draws a diverse population from all over the world, the City Council has never had a person of South Asian descent among its membership.
No openly gay Black woman has ever sat among its 51 lawmakers, even as the city has long been a haven for L.G.B.T.Q. people of color, and no Muslim woman has served as a council member in a city with an estimated 769,000 Muslims.
But after the polls close tonight, those barriers are all widely expected to be broken by a number of Democratic candidates who, in a city where Democrats outnumber Republicans nearly seven to one, are heavily favored to win their elections.
Shahana Hanif, a former City Council employee who won her primary in a Brooklyn district that covers Park Slope, Kensington and parts of central Brooklyn, is expected to be the first Muslim woman elected to the Council in its history.
Ms. Hanif, who is Bangladeshi American, will also be one of the first Council members of South Asian descent, along with Shekar Krishnan, who is of Indian descent and won his primary in Jackson Heights and Elmhurst, in Queens. If Felicia Singh, who is in a competitive race against a Republican opponent in Queens, wins her election, she will join them.
The City Council is also expected to have its first out gay Black women serve as members: Kristin Richardson Jordan in Harlem and Crystal Hudson in a Brooklyn district that encompasses parts of Prospect Heights, Crown Heights, Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, and Bedford-Stuyvesant.
A number of other L.G.B.T.Q. candidates are likely to join them, including Tiffany Cabán and Lynn Schulman in Queens; Chi Ossé in Brooklyn; and Erik Bottcher in Manhattan.
They are part of a larger shift in New York’s City Council, which is poised to have a diversity that mirrors the city it represents. More than two dozen women are positioned to take a majority of the Council’s seats, for the first time ever.
Jumaane D. Williams is no stranger to running for public advocate. His likely victory for a full four-year term on Tuesday comes after three elections for the seat in under three years following a 2019 special election victory.
Re-election as public advocate would give him a stable base to pursue another office that he’s interested in: governor. Mr. Williams has formed an exploratory committee and has said he will make a decision in the next few weeks about whether he will run for that job.
The race for governor has grown competitive recently. Gov. Kathy Hochul, who took office when former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo resigned, is running, and Letitia James, the New York State attorney general, announced her candidacy last week. Other possible candidates include the New York City mayor, Bill de Blasio, and Representative Thomas Suozzi from Long Island.
Eyeing a run for governor while running for public advocate has left Mr. Williams open to criticism from his fellow candidates that he would not pay attention to the job of public advocate if re-elected. The public advocate serves as an ombudsman and is also next in the line of succession to the mayor.
Dr. Devi Nampiaparampil, the Republican nominee, said New Yorkers deserved an advocate who was focused on dealing with issues specific to the city; she has claimed that Mr. Williams would be distracted if he runs for governor.
Mr. Williams said that if he ran for governor, he would do so to address two of the most important issues facing the state — criminal justice reform and affordable housing — from his perspective as a progressive.
After a surprise run for lieutenant governor in 2018 brought him closer to victory than many expected, Mr. Williams said that he was getting a warm reception during state listening tours.
[Follow results of the N.Y.C. mayoral race and other New York elections.]
Brad Lander, a three-term New York City councilman, is expected to win Tuesday’s race for comptroller against Daby Carreras, a Republican aligned with the Trump wing of the party.
Mr. Lander, 52, from Park Slope, Brooklyn, is running as a left-leaning Democrat, with endorsements from Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (who gets top billing on his campaign website), Senator Elizabeth Warren and the New York City public advocate, Jumaane Williams.
Mr. Carreras, who Bloomberg reported is a financial adviser at Spartan Capital Securities LLC, is running as a far-right Republican. He is unlikely to win in a city where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by nearly seven to one.
The comptroller oversees the city’s public pension funds, whose assets total nearly $300 billion, and audits city agencies.
The post also frequently attracts politicians with higher aspirations. The departing New York City comptroller, Scott M. Stringer, ran for mayor, as did his two predecessors, John C. Liu and William C. Thompson Jr.
Mr. Lander supports efforts to make the city’s pension fund investments more environmentally friendly and has promised to expand upon them. As a candidate, he has pledged to help overhaul the way the city invests in infrastructure to make it more efficient and to conduct “sharp, strategic” audits of city agencies.
Mr. Carreras has suggested he would focus entirely on investment returns if elected.
“The entire reason why I’m here is because I bring money here,” he said during a debate on NY1. “I’m a money wave. Ching, ching, ching goes the money tree. Every time it chings, money comes to me.”
He also promises to be a combatant in the culture wars. Mr. Carreras participated in the debate remotely because he declined to provide proof of vaccination — something he said was a violation of privacy.
During the debate, the moderator, Errol Louis, cut Mr. Carreras off, saying that NY1 did not traffic in “misinformation” about the vaccine.
Mr. Carreras has also been spotted on the campaign trail wearing a yellow Jewish star, of the sort the Nazis made Jews wear during the Holocaust, in protest against vaccine mandates.
First there were 22 candidates running for New York City mayor. Then on Primary Day, there were 15. Then, following New York City’s tumultuous experiment with ranked-choice voting, there were two: Eric Adams, the Brooklyn borough president, and Curtis Sliwa, the red-bereted founder of the Guardian Angels.
The road to Tuesday was paved with hubristic ambitions of political domination and humbling encounters with reality. Nowhere was that truer than in the Democratic primary for mayor, where more than a dozen candidates vied for what is often called the second-hardest job in America.
At first, as racial justice protests roiled New York City, it seemed like a progressive candidate might carry the day. Then it seemed like Andrew Yang, the former presidential candidate, might succeed, largely on the basis of his feel-good personality. As the primary got underway, New York City was in the doldrums — huddled indoors against the cold and yet another wave of Covid-19, as gun violence spiked.
But as the primary progressed, the weather warmed, the vaccines arrived and New York City was no longer so hungry for a cheerleader. Voters were concerned about violent crime and managerial competence. The rise in shootings made Maya Wiley, who became the standard-bearer for the left wing of the Democratic Party and eventually came in third, seem less appealing.
The desire for a skilled manager buoyed the campaign of Kathryn Garcia, a former city sanitation commissioner who had never run for political office, to the point where she almost pulled it off. But after several well-publicized shootings, including one that injured a young child in Times Square, the issue of crime reigned supreme, and there was no out-copping the former cop, Mr. Adams.
The Republican race was more straightforward. Mr. Sliwa faced off against Fernando Mateo, a restaurant operator. Mr. Sliwa prevailed on the basis of his name recognition and vow to fight crime. He is unlikely to prevail on Tuesday, however. Registered Democrats outnumber Republicans in New York City by nearly seven to one.
Eric Adams, the Democratic nominee for mayor, and his Republican opponent, Curtis Sliwa, have expressed very different visions for the city as it struggles to recover from the pandemic — battered by the virus, a rise in gun violence and a stifled economic recovery.
Times reporters covering transportation, education, health care, law enforcement, the economy and housing examined the policies each candidate has championed during the campaign.
Among the most notable differences:
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Mr. Adams wants to trim the New York Police Department budget by cutting back on overtime pay; Mr. Sliwa, the founder of the Guardian Angels subway patrol group, wants to hire 3,000 more officers.
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Mr. Sliwa wants to remove bike lanes; Mr. Adams is a cyclist who wants to build 300 miles of new protected lanes.
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Mr. Adams wants to keep vaccine mandates for city workers and indoor dining; Mr. Sliwa would reverse both.
There are some areas of common ground: Both want to expand the gifted and talented program for elementary schools instead of ending it, as the current mayor planned to. Both have called for hundreds more “psychiatric beds” at hospitals to be used for people with mental health problems who are living on the streets. The candidates have also proposed somewhat overlapping economic recovery initiatives.
One thing is certain — whoever wins on Tuesday will face enormous challenges when he takes office in January.
New York City’s Board of Elections suffered a major embarrassment in June when it botched the rollout of the new ranked-choice voting system.
In a competitive Democratic primary for mayor, the agency released vote totals showing the race tightening and then retracted them hours later. Officials had mistakenly included more than 130,000 test ballots in the count.
It was not the first time the agency has come under fire. It has repeatedly received criticism over nepotism, ineptitude and corruption.
The general election on Tuesday appeared to be running more smoothly. Michael J. Ryan, the executive director of the New York City Board of Elections, said around 9:30 a.m. that there had not been major disruptions to voting across the city.
“You get a sense when things are off on the right foot and that they are moving the right direction — and that is the sense I have this morning,” Mr. Ryan said.
It was expected there would be fewer issues because of the nature of the election. The ballot is simpler because there is no ranked-choice voting, a system that was used in the primary and allowed voters to rank up to five choices in order of preference.
And voter turnout has been pretty slow in this election, judging by how many New Yorkers chose to vote during nine days of early voting. Just under 170,000 people voted early in October. That figure was higher during the competitive primary in June, when about 190,000 voters cast early ballots.
Still, some polling locations reported minor problems on Tuesday morning.
At M.S. 137 in the Ozone Park neighborhood of Queens, some voters faced wait times of up to 20 minutes in the morning because of issues with ballot machines and missing poll workers, said Aaron Fernando, a volunteer for Felicia Singh, who is running for City Council.
One prospective voter was nearly turned away from the site, he said, after a worker misinterpreted instructions. Others said they considered leaving out of frustration or to get to work on time, Mr. Fernando added.
But some of the problems were resolved later in the morning when the Board of Elections sent a worker to the site, he said.
The outlook remained better than in previous years.
Election officials mistakenly purged about 200,000 people from voter rolls ahead of the 2016 election; they forced some voters to wait in four-hour lines on Election Day 2018; and they sent erroneous ballots to nearly 100,000 New Yorkers seeking to vote by mail last year.
Eric Adams, the Brooklyn borough president, is widely expected to win the mayor’s race against Curtis Sliwa, the founder of the Guardian Angels — and the view among many that the race has effectively been decided could reduce turnout.
We expect to get results in the mayor’s race shortly after polls close at 9 p.m.
One of the peculiarities of this year’s race for New York City mayor has been the difficulty reporters have had in pinning down where the Democratic candidate Eric Adams lives.
Mr. Adams has said that he lives on the ground floor of his rental property in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, but his tax returns suggested otherwise. He also owns an apartment in Fort Lee, N.J., with his companion, Tracey Collins. Twice, in response to reporters’ questions, he has promised to amend the tax returns. He has blamed the discrepancies on his accountant, who he said was homeless.
To get to the bottom of this mystery, the real-estate news site Curbed staked out the Brooklyn home last week.
At 4:18 a.m. last Tuesday, Mr. Adams pulled up to the curb in a gray Toyota Prius and parked illegally, in front of the garage of a plumbing supply company, Curbed reported.
As Mr. Adams apparently slept, trucks trying to access the plumbing business “backed up all the way down Lafayette Avenue, causing a bona fide pileup.”
Finally, at 8 a.m., a forklift from the supply company used a yellow rope to pull Mr. Adams’s car out of the way.
When Mr. Adams left his house that morning, he found the traffic jam he had created blocking his path. So he drove down the sidewalk, photos show. Mr. Adams returned to the house that same evening, after participating in the final mayoral debate.
Curbed considers its own stakeout inconclusive. It may also soon be a moot point. Mr. Adams is likely to win Tuesday’s election, which means that come January, he may be living in Gracie Mansion.
Once a front-runner to become the next mayor of New York himself, Andrew Yang’s voting record came under intense scrutiny during his campaign: Over more than 20 years living in the city, he had never voted in a mayoral election.
But on Tuesday, for the first time, he cast his ballot for the position he once sought, he said on Twitter.
Mr. Yang, who finished in fourth place in the Democratic primary, did not respond to a text message from a New York Times reporter asking if Eric Adams, the Democratic nominee, had received his vote.
Mr. Yang and Mr. Adams often traded harsh attacks during the primary season, and their tensions resulted in the clearest rivalry of the race. Mr. Yang also announced last month that he had chosen to leave the Democratic Party and become an independent.
He had previously argued that his lack of participation in municipal elections was not out of the ordinary, but reflective of the feelings of many New Yorkers who do not view city politics as essential or key to shaping issues that affect them on a daily basis.
Even as Mr. Yang’s vote remained unclear, several other former competitors of Mr. Adams declared their support for the former police officer.
Maya Wiley, the lawyer and former MSNBC analyst who finished in third in the Democratic primary, said she voted early for Mr. Adams on Sunday.
The two had clashed over matters of public safety and policing during the race. But Ms. Wiley said during her concession speech in July that Mr. Adams’s election as the city’s second Black mayor would be meaningful.
Kathryn Garcia, who finished in second, has also endorsed Mr. Adams.
Katie Glueck contributed reporting.
With his time left in office dwindling, Mayor Bill de Blasio cast his ballot in the election for his successor at a busy Park Slope Library on Tuesday, a vote that essentially reinforced the end of his eight-year term even as he appeared to be weighing his political future.
“I’m feeling good,” Mr. de Blasio told a volunteer after being greeted by a small group of election officials and voters shortly after noon. “Thank you for all you’re doing,” he said to more volunteers.
Mr. de Blasio, a Democrat, did not offer an endorsement in the crowded mayoral primary earlier this year, during which his tenure as mayor became a punching bag for candidates. But he was believed to favor Eric Adams, whom he ultimately backed in the general election.
Earlier on Tuesday, Mr. de Blasio appeared on MSNBC, where he predicted — as many have — that Mr. Adams would sail to victory. “I think he has a real inner strength,” Mr. de Blasio said of his heir apparent, adding, “I’m looking forward to this handoff.”
After Mr. de Blasio spent several minutes filling in his ballot, he then made his way across the street to Public School 39 to share his thoughts on the race.
But he stayed tight-lipped about whether and when he would announce a rumored run for governor of New York in next year’s election, saying any announcement would come in “due time,” even as he has started to tell people privately that he plans to declare his candidacy.
During his MSNBC appearance, Mr. de Blasio acknowledged that he wanted to “continue in public service” and said that he believed there was plenty of work to be done in Albany, the state capital.
“This state has fallen behind in some ways that we really must address,” Mr. de Blasio said, before adding, “I look forward to being part of the discussion of where our state needs to go in the future.”
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