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Brian Lehrer: It's The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. Good morning everyone and if you live in New York city, happy primary day. Remember back in January, when the insurrection had just happened at the Capitol in Washington and Biden was being sworn in, and the winter surge and COVID-19 was happening and the first vaccine doses were rolling out only for people over 75 and even they had trouble getting an appointment, that was all just five months ago. Doesn't it seem like a lifetime?

Somewhere in the midst of all that historic intensity, this show and Gothamist and other news organizations that are focused on New York as well as the rest of the world started saying, it may feel small and far away right now, but New York city is going to have a mayoral primary in June that's going to be huge for the future of the city and it's really not that long from now. We're going to start paying attention because this is going to sneak up on us.

We did pay attention on this show, having meetings every day behind the scenes, starting back then to decide how much national politics intensity, how much COVID intensity, how much are the other things on earth we were not paying the usual attention to, to deal with in our limited time each day. We added to the mix the question of how much to start covering the mayoral primary, not to mention the dozens of other seats up for grabs this year, knowing people would have a hard time getting their minds around it at the start with everything else that was going on.

We tiptoed into these waters at first, so did the WNYC news department, and our local news website Gothamist. Eventually, here we had three rounds of mayoral candidate interviews on this show. One that ended in March, we did a round that we called Ask The Mayor Tryouts in April. Remember that? Even that seems like a lifetime ago and one on economic justice around with all the eight leading candidates in May, and then our final elevator pitch round on yesterday's show.

By the way, we thank all eight leading Democrats for showing up for that, for their final five minute pitches to all of you yesterday, they've all been very accessible to us. You know why? It's because Brian Lehrer Show listeners vote. It's not because of me, it's because of you. Our news department and Gothamist put some of our best reporters on the election beat full-time or almost full-time these last few months, Bridget Burgen, Liz Cam, Gwynne Hogan, David Cruz, others, and here we are, primary day.

We said this would sneak up on you and apparently it has because early voting and mail-in voting numbers have been kind of meh. We think, or at least we hope there will be lots of turnout today. The next mayor and comptroller and borough presidents, and city council members, and judges and district attorneys, aren't decided by like 3% of the people, which has happened at times in the past in this city. If you are registered in a political party in New York city and have not voted yet, take the time, go to your local polling place and cast a vote.

They'll give you a free sticker as a souvenir and you'll feel better about your life. If a candidate you really don't like wins and they screw up the city, you can get a button or a bumper sticker like people do sometimes after elections that says, "Don't blame me, I voted for Maya Wiley, I voted for Eric Adams, I voted for Andrew Yang, for Kathryn Garcia, for Paperboy Prince, or whoever, don't blame me. I voted for someone else, but I voted."

If you didn't vote and it doesn't turn out well, you're going to walk around knowing you could have done your little part to have made it different. Get out there and vote in this primary. Do it right now. Take the show with you on your earbuds to keep you company, and you'll be done before lunch. That's my lecture. I will stop now, but do go and vote.

For this primary day morning, we will keep you company where the Brian Lehrer Show election day tradition. It's our informal, unofficial, thoroughly unscientific primary day exit poll, who did you choose for mayor of New York, for New York city comptroller, from Manhattan DA, for borough president in your borough, for your local city council seat, and maybe you're even one of the 10 people who actually voted for judges or members of the judicial convention. Yes, we did do a segment on the show last month explaining what that is, but I'm not going to get back into it now.

646-435-7280, 646-435-7280 to tell the world who you voted for, for mayor and in any other race, or you can tweet @brianlehrer, 646-435-7280 or tweet @brianlehrer electioneering welcome here. When I say, who did you vote for for mayor by the way, that means the democratic and Republican primaries. Most of the focus has of course been on the Democrats because there are 13 of them and in Blue New York, the Democratic nominee will almost certainly win in November.

Remember this radio station did sponsor a Republican mayoral debate, as well as the Democratic one. I was one of the questioners, some of you will remember for the candidates Curtis Sliwa and Fernando Mateo live on the station here last month and on TV on New York 1. Registered Republicans to be sure you're invited to, even though most of the attention has gone to the Democrats in all the local media, for all those reasons. Did you choose Curtis Sliwa or Fernando Mateo registered Republican? 646-435-7280 or tweet @brianlehrer.

As your calls are coming in, with me for a few minutes is WNYC and Gothamist reporter Gwynne Hogan who's been following the end game developments and the racists for mayor, comptroller and Manhattan DA, and has already been to some polling places in lower Manhattan this morning. Hey Gwynne, happy primary day. Where are you right now?

Gwynne Hogan: Good morning. Happy primary day Brian. Right now I'm across the street from an Alphabet city polling site. I was here earlier in the morning and then I rode around on my bike and came back because Maya Wiley was just here, greeting voters. She spoke to reporters and was saying hi to voters and making her last pitch. She just drove off, but I'm still here at the polling site

Brian Lehrer: Does our news department issue news bikes for you and other reporters to ride around on?

Gwynne Hogan: I should take this up with my bosses and have them fix my tires, but no, that's my personal bike.

Brian Lehrer: I think so. We've seen enough news cars from stations in the past, maybe we've got an idea here. Anyway, can you tell anything about turnout in general or who seems to be getting out their voters from the stops you've made?

Gwynne Hogan: The polling sites, I've been to about four or five sites around the east side of lower Manhattan since 6:00 AM, and it's been like a slow trickle of voters, most coordinators and poll site folks that I talked to said, "People are coming in, but it hasn't really picked up yet and we might see that later on after work hours of course."

Brian Lehrer: How are people taking to ranked-choice voting? Are you getting a sense of that?

Gwynne Hogan: Yes. I've talked to so many different folks about how they thought about this. A lot of them said that they were a little concerned going in. I talked to a Spanish speaking gentlemen this morning who was like, "I was worried, I don't know how to do this." He was an older guy, but he said that there was an interpreter on the site and the interpreter helped him figure it out. There's a lot of signage and information that you can get that the board of elections is giving out in the poll sites themselves.

There I've seen nonpartisan voter educators with the group Common Cause viewer core outside of poll sites with pamphlets explaining it. Honestly, everybody I've talked to, well, not everybody, I would say like 85% of people that I've talked to are like, "This is okay." If you still want to vote for one person, you can. Most of the people that I talked to were like, "It's nice to be able to weigh in and not have to only pick one, to be able to rank along perceptions of candidates," that most of the people that I talked to said that that made them feel like they had more choice.

Brian Lehrer: On that score, you've been covering the political fireworks in the last few days in the mayor, comptroller and Manhattan DA's race. It always gets nasty on the last weekend. People who remember some of the older [unintelligible 00:09:07] primaries will know some of those stories. I guess political consultants believe that they'll drive turnout more by accusing other candidates of bad things in the final days, rather than a final burst of inspiration.

Let me go down a little checklist here, did you get any sense from voters, and I realize it's early that Andrew Yang and Kathryn Garcia campaigning together the last few days, either drew more voters to either of them or caused a backlash?

Gwynne Hogan: I've heard from voters who said both things. I talked to one person who was like, "After Yang's endorsement, had been a yang supporter previously, I definitely support Kathryn Garcia number two now that he has made this official endorsement." I also talked to one Yang supporter who said, "No, I didn't like the way that Andrew Yang or that Kathryn Garcia had previously criticized Yang." She had made some comments I think it was in New York, I don't remember a publication about it being a sexist thing to be considered number two for all these men who were the front runners.

He remembered that comment. He was like, "I'm not ranking her because of the things that she said about Yang previously." That is of course unscientific, but we'll see. I do think that it seems like it's more of a boon to Garcia because she hasn't officially endorsed Yang and he has what appears to be a strong base of supporters, but we'll have to see how this plays out in the coming weeks.

Brian Lehrer: Later in the show, listeners, when we have Susan Lerner from Common Cause on, she's a ranked-choice voting expert, and she's going to break down the math, if you will, of Garcia and Yang teaming up and what exactly that's supposed to do to help one or the other, or both of them against Eric Adams and Maya Wiley, the other two front runners.

Gwynne and my guest for a few minutes before we go to your calls is WNYC it's Gwynne Hogan. What about in the Manhattan DA's race, which you've been covering and since you've been going to polling places in Manhattan this morning with the last minute controversies on that one over Tali Farhadian Weinstein giving herself $8 million of her own wealth to spend during the final week or the back and forth between her and candidates, Alvin Bragg and Dan Quart over sexual assault and domestic violence prosecutions. Does that even register with people you're talking to?

Gwynne Hogan: I, again, from the handful of folks that I've talked to today, I talked to one person who said they didn't get to that page of the ballot, which I know it's two pages ballot and there's four sides. It's a lot for voters all across the city but I think that's going to be an issue. Did people actually vote in that specific election? I did speak to one voter this morning in Stuy town who cited the donations to Tali Farhadian Weinstein saying that that was, or that the fact that she had donated $8.2 million to her own campaign, as the reason why she voted for her competitor, Alvin Bragg.

Right outside, I ran into candidate Tahanie Aboushi who was passing out literature to voters there. Another very interesting race. Brian, that's something that we may actually know the winner of tonight. One of the only races where we may know the winner, because as I've said so many times on your show, you can't rank choice vote in that election because it's governed by state election law. It's a county office so voters are only allowed to select one winner.

Brian Lehrer: There are a whole bunch of candidates in that race too. If nobody gets over 40%, I think that's the old rule. If nobody gets over 40%, is there a runoff or is it just like you could win this race with 29% of the vote if nobody gets more than that.

Gwynne Hogan: The old system, you could win as long as you have more than anybody else, there's not a runoff and there's not going to be a runoff. There could be a recount potentially triggered. I was talking to the board of elections about this. That's if it comes in a very small margin, less than a percentage point, they might recount. I don't know if you remember a few years ago there was a recount in the Queens district attorney race because of that.

We should know the winner tonight. Of course there is the absentee ballots, which are a factor here that won't be counted for a while but if one candidate has enough of a leg up, folks may be calling the race tonight.

Brian Lehrer: All right, that's one race we may actually know the results of tonight. WNYC, Gwynne Hogan. Good luck out there today. We'll be listening to you on your bicycle, on the radio and reading you. We shouldn't read while we're on our bicycles, listeners, but we will be reading Gwynne Hogan on Gothamist, as well as hearing her reports on the air through today. I hope you don't get a thunderstorm on you and your bike and rust the chain and everything as is predicted might happen.

Gwynne Hogan: It's pretty rusty. It's already rusty.

[chuckles]

Brian Lehrer: Okay Gwynne, thanks a lot for starting us off.

Gwynne Hogan: Thanks so much, Brian.

Brian Lehrer: Now listeners, it's our informal unofficial thoroughly unscientific primary day exit poll. Who did you choose for mayor of New York or in any other race? Let's start with Wayne in Queens. Wayne, you're on WNYC, happy primary day.

Wayne: Happy primary to you, Brian, how you doing? I voted for Eric Adams. My reasons. Between him and a few other ones. My reason, I saw it on TV on Channel 5 one morning and they asked him, "What could you not live without?" He said, "You know what, I like my hot bath with candles." I said, any man who is secure enough with himself to admit to take a nice long hot bath with candles, he's my type of guy because that's a man after my own heart.

Brian Lehrer: The Personality vote, go ahead, Wayne. You can keep going.

Wayne: Add to the 22 years experience. I believe he's good. Also, as I was speaking to your screener, I had a slight difficulty with some of the ranked-choice voting, when there was five candidates, it was fine, but there's a couple of choices were for the judges and you only had three choices and it said, write in candidate. I asked him, "Well, I can write anybody I want?" He said, "Well, if you write somebody in, it might cancel the entire pick on that board." I said, "Really? Then why is it there?" He says, "Write in." You can write in.

Brian Lehrer: I think you got bad advice. You can't write people in.

Wayne: That's what I was thinking. I said, maybe he's jus a fool. One last thing is, it's a shame I couldn't vote in the other districts. There was a person running for, I think District 27, Her name was Tasha. Tasha Williams, she actually grew up with my stepdaughter. She's very bright at community advice. She's been doing this for about almost 10 years. She's like early 30s. I said it's a shame I couldn't vote for her because she's not in my district.

Brian Lehrer: She's a city council candidate?

Wayne: Yes. For district 27. Yes. She's a very bright young woman. That's what we need is some young blood coming in the system here.

Brian Lehrer: Wayne, thank you so much for your call. Please call us again. We really appreciate it. Couple of things on that, one about the write in votes, my guests about what that poll worker had in mind is, if there are stray marks on the ballot, because you're supposed to fill in the little bubble hole, like on a lot of forms like that. If there are stray marks on the ballot, it does risk voiding it when the computer tries to read it, that's maybe what the poll worker had in mind but if you want to write somebody in there are lines for that. Personally, I think it's a big risk. If you want to write somebody in and make some kind of a point, even though no writing candidate is going to win, I'd say, go ahead and do it.

Also on one of the last things that Gwynne said, some people told her that they didn't even vote for Manhattan DA because they didn't get that far in the ballot. It is a big piece of paper and it's got folds in it. Some of those beautiful cards that people make that are like accordion cards and you open them up and it says one thing with a design on one panel and another thing with a design on the next panel, some of those accordion cards, the ballot is like that. You've got to open it up. You've got to unfold it. You've got to look at both sides. That's the tricky part, I guess, just looking at both sides in order to vote in all the races that you want to vote in. A little piece of advice on that.

Douglas in Brooklyn, you're on WNYC. Douglas, you there?

Douglas: Hey Brian. Yes, I am. Hi?

Brian Lehrer: Good. What were you just doing? Who were you talking to?

Douglas: I was talking to a poll worker.

Brian Lehrer: Cool. You're at a polling place right now.

Douglas: I walked by my neighborhood school. I voted early. It didn't matter. [unintelligible 00:18:58]

Brian Lehrer: All right. Who'd you vote?

Douglas: I voted for Andrew Yang.

Brian Lehrer: Because?

Douglas: I like Andrew Yang. I think he's smart. I read his book. I think he's going to help poor people. I think he's pragmatic. I also think that a lot of what a mayor does is based on the circumstances, people loved Bill de Blasio when the city was doing well financially and he was opening pre-K which was great but I think mayors are really judged by when times get bad, whether that's financial, whether that's a pandemic, whether that's some other event, 9/11. I think Andrew Yang would do well in those kind of situations.

Brian Lehrer: Who'd you choose second?

Douglas: Kathryn Garcia.

Brian Lehrer: Did that have anything to do with the two of them campaigning together the last few days? You had already made up your mind about that?

Douglas: Yes, I had already made up my mind. I'm a pro-development guy. I think we needs to build more in New York. My city council race is the Gowanus rezoning is a big issue. I think all of the city council candidates in the 39 District in Brooklyn are great on that issue. I think we need more housing, market-rate, and affordable, and I just don't think there's enough.

In a community where there's a lot of historically preserved neighborhoods, and there's a lot of single-family zoning, there's nowhere else to build affordable housing in this community. The other issues I'm not thrilled ranked-choice voting, it was okay. I didn't feel great about it. I don't think it's going to drive turnout. I think that's our big issue. We have very low turnout in the city, and it's going to be low turnout in this race. We have to start looking at what can increase turnout. I don't know if early voting and ranked-choice voting is going to do that.

Brian Lehrer: Thank you, Douglas. I appreciate all those thoughts. One of the things that I'll be watching for today is to see if moving the primary to June increases turnout. Remember, it used to be in all the mayoral primaries until this year, they used to be in September. It was eight days after Labor Day, a week and a day after Labor Day was the local New York City primary in the past.

I've always thought that that was a bad time for a primary because people were just coming back from not paying attention to the news as much in the summer, and then basically just had a week. Not people who listen to the show, you people are obsessed, but a lot of people who you would hope would vote but just were getting their minds around the campaigns in those few days after Labor Day when they're also may be getting the kids back to school and themselves back into whatever their full routines are.

Turnout is always low in the September primary. Maybe moving it to June when there isn't as much to compete with it is going to increase turnout or [unintelligible 00:22:15] to see if that's the case. Liz in Inwood, you're on WNYC. Hi, Liz.

Liz: Hi, thanks so much for taking my call. I didn't vote today. I voted early on the first day of early voting, which I have to say as an Inwood resident was a bit of a bummer because we had to go as you know all the way down to the armory. There were no early polling sites north of 168th Street. I'm sorry, north of 183rd Street. I think that Washington Heights and Inwood is going to turn out heavy today because they can vote close to home.

I voted for Scott Stringer for mayor. I voted for Mark Levine for borough president. They are both, I think the most qualified and ready on day one, which I know is Scott's slogan, but it's actually true. They both share the progressive values that I share. I did vote in the judicial delegates and alternate, so I guess that puts me in a smaller category since I know a lot of people didn't get to that page.

I was really grateful for that little plastic do hickey that magnifies the print because I'm getting old, Brian, I couldn't read the thing. [chuckles] It was really small, was really, really small and I needed a magnifying glass. I'm not ashamed to admit it.

Brian Lehrer: Tell people about that in case they want that too. I'm not familiar with it. When you come in, they will give you a magnifying glass if you ask for one to read the small print on the ballot?

Liz: No, when you go to the little privacy booth that's got the high side so that people don't see how you're filling out the ballot. There is a little plastic magnifying sheet. It's maybe, I don't know, it's maybe six by nine or so. You hold it a couple of inches above the ballot and it magnifies what you're reading. As a person who occasionally needs reading glasses for small print, but does not actually walk around with reading glasses, I appreciated that feature.

I also appreciated that they had a pretty informative card in multiple languages on how to do the ranked-choice voting. I thought it would be a little more confusing filling out the ballot than it turned out to be. It was a lot of bubbling, but it wasn't actually difficult to understand how to do it. I was grateful for the choices because we have two great candidates running in our city council race and I was grateful to be a to vote for both Angela Fernández and Carmen De La Rosa for city council.

Brian Lehrer: Did you already say who you voted for mayor? We talked so much about the process. Did you already say who you voted for for Mayor?

Liz: Yes, I voted for Scott Stringer for mayor and Mark Levine for borough president.

Brian Lehrer: Who'd you pick second for mayor?

Liz: Kathryn Garcia, and then Ray McGuire, and then Maya Wiley, but I didn't pick a fifth.

Brian Lehrer: How did you decide on Stringer?

Liz: I've known Scott since he was in the assembly. I have found him to be right on the issues, which is to say left on the issues. Since I have known him, there are a bunch of issues that people talk about as being important that it's fashionable and vogue, to be in favor of now like workplace equity, diversity, and inclusion, the environment, so many of these issues that Scott's been out in front on for 15, 20 years. For me, he's really a no-brainer.

Brian Lehrer: You were able to dismiss the sexual misconduct allegations from the two women?

Liz: I really don't want to be judged for the things that I may have done that may have been wrong in the 90s when I was in my 20s. Even if the allegations are true, never mind that they may not be. This isn't like a repeating pattern that has any evidence in his contemporary behavior. There's nobody who's come forward who said 10 years ago, or five years ago, or last year, or last week, this isn't like Andrew Cuomo, where there's an ongoing clear pattern of sexually predatory and bullying behavior. That whole scandal seemed like a nothing burger to me.

Brian Lehrer: Liz, thank you for your call. We really appreciate you checking in with us. It's our informal, unofficial, thoroughly unscientific primary day exit poll on The Brian Lehrer Show. Derek in Bushwick, you're on WNYC. Hey, Derek, thanks for calling in.

Derek: Hi, Brian. Love the show. How are you?

Brian Lehrer: I'm doing okay. Thank you for that. Who did you vote for for mayor?

Derek: I voted for Maya Wiley early on Saturday, because I'm poll working today.

Brian Lehrer: How is your voting experience, and are you talking to us on the radio while your poll working?

Derek: Well, no, I took my first break of the day at 10:00, so I can catch your first hour.

Brian Lehrer: Yes. Good priorities.

Derek: My voting experience is great. I love the addition of early voting. I think it's terrific for New York.

Brian Lehrer: Great. Tell me about being a poll worker today. What are you seeing in general that might be newsworthy or help people know if ranked-choice voting is working or anything else you can report that's nonpartisan?

Derek: I think that the addition of early voting definitely cuts down on [unintelligible 00:28:27] today. What we're seeing is very much [unintelligible 00:28:30]. I poll worked for the first time in November, which of course was a much bigger turnout in my experience. I'd still like to able to be there for folks who want to vote today.

Brian Lehrer: We have a pretty bad connection, but just tell me real quick if you chose Maya Wiley first, who'd you vote for second.

Derek: Scott Stringer.

Brian Lehrer: Scott Stringer. Maya Wiley and Scott Stringer from Derek in Bushwick. Derek, thank you so much. Alyssa and Ozone Park, you're on WNYC. Hi, Alyssa. Thank you for calling in.

Alyssa: Hi, happy primary day, Brian.

Brian Lehrer: And to you. Do I see that you're calling primarily about your local city council race?

Alyssa: Yes. Felicia Singh for District 32.

Brian Lehrer: Tell us about Felicia Singh as you see her. For the people not familiar with your district, what's in District 32, Ozone Park, and probably more than just that neighborhood, right?

Alyssa: Yes, I'm located here in Ozone Park, but District 32 is Woodhaven, Ozone Park, Howard Beach, Broad Channel, the Rockaways. It's vast. it's a huge strip. It's an immigrant neighborhood. Felicia is a daughter of immigrants. She's a teacher. She's an advocate. She's a community leader. She's a badass. I'm really excited for her and she definitely knows what it takes to get things done and she's ready to flip our district blue so I'm excited to see a district run by her.

Brian Lehrer: Oh, do you have a Republican city council member now?

Alyssa: Yes, we do. Eric Ulrich.

Brian Lehrer: That's Ulrich's district. Interesting. What did you find? That may be one we'll cover in November because that may be one of the actual competitive races in the general election. What did you find, or what do you think for you are the main issues for a city council member this year?

Alyssa: I think a big thing that we're seeing especially with the pandemic, one is education. Felicia as a teacher, I think she knows exactly what it's like to be in a school and to be in a classroom. I have a lot of faith in her and in her policies and things that she's going to roll out for that, but also climate change. I think we're seeing a ton of this as time trickles on. Especially that part of our district is waterfront with the Rockaways and Broad Channel.

We saw with Sandy a ton of flooding and that we really need to be prepared with climate change. Felicia is very well connected and working on all these things already as a candidate so those were things that were definitely important to me, but also small businesses and we are a transportation desert, and Felicia is very much advocating to keep small businesses alive here. We are a working class neighborhood and a neighborhood of immigrants and so public transportation and small businesses. They're key to keeping this district running.

Brian Lehrer: Who'd you vote for, for mayor? If I may ask?

Alyssa: Sure. I voted for Kathryn Garcia.

Brian Lehrer: Because?

Alyssa: For several reasons, but I did want to plug that there is a very cool thing that you can do on thecity.nyc. That's called meet your mayor. You can basically take a test on all different things that encompass issues for the mayor, such as homelessness, climate change, criminal justice, labor, immigration, transportation, you fill out your opinion on all these things to ask you a variety of questions and it matches you with the candidate that you most aligned with and Kathryn Garcia was my top match. It'll actually give you your top five matches so you could do your ranked voting.

Brian Lehrer: Yes. That's been a cool tool. Who'd you vote for a second?

Alyssa: I voted for Andrew Yang second.

Brian Lehrer: Did that have anything to do with their co-campaigning the last few days or had you already made up your mind on that?

Alyssa: I had already made up my mind on that, but it is interesting because these are the two people that I felt I had aligned with or are working together.

Brian Lehrer: Alyssa, thank you so much for checking in with us. We really appreciate it. It's our informal unofficial thoroughly unscientific primary day exit poll. We'll keep taking your calls and tweets right after this.

[00:33:02] [END OF AUDIO]

 

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