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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Happy primary day 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, for Manhattan DA, for borough president, for your local city council seat, or any other race on the ballot today? 646-435-7280 or tweet @BrianLehrer. While your calls are coming in, joining us for a few minutes now, journalist Ese Olumhense from the news organization, City Limits. She was last here to talk about some of the most interesting races in Brooklyn this primary season. Today she is in the Bronx. Thanks for taking some time out for us, Ese. Welcome back to WNYC.

Ese Olumhense: Thanks for inviting me again.

Brian Lehrer: Where are you right now and where have you been so far?

Ese Olumhense: I'm at the Emmett Bassett school. This is in the Southeast Bronx. I'm at a polling site here that the city actually has language assistance services in play here. It's been nice to see folks interface with that. There's a big Bengali community here, lots of folks from Bangladesh, Spanish speakers here as well. It's a very diverse polling site. Earlier this morning, I was at Taft High School. I spent the morning there. That's at East 172nd and Sheridan in the West Bronx.

Brian Lehrer: How's the turnout?

Ese Olumhense: That's a bit of a trickle. I can't say that we've seen the super long lines, and the doors being taken off the hinges for folks to vote. There is a steady stream of folks coming in and that was true at both sites.

Brian Lehrer: Are you able to get a sense, Ese, of how big the crime and policing issue is to the voters you're speaking with as opposed to anything else if voters are talking to you about issues?

Ese Olumhense: Yes. Crime and policing are, certainly, things that I've heard a lot of talk about this morning. At the first site that I was at, that's Taft High School, on Sheridan Avenue, which is one of the streets that the school is located on, there was a shooting not far from there not too long ago. This was last week, Thursday. Listeners may remember this was a man shooting at another man with two young kids who were standing behind him who later had to duck and dodge the bullets. Folks definitely thought a lot about that. Some poll workers and folks who were voting at the first site said that that was one of the factors that drove them to the polls and drove them to the polls at that hour and specific, they wanted to not be out late voting.

Brian Lehrer: One of your recent articles is called New York City Spent Nearly $15 million to Publicize ranked-choice voting. Some say it came too late. What's the issue there?

Ese Olumhense: Yes. The city has really put a lot of money into this ranked-choice voting education campaign. The mayor announced the $15 million initiative at the end of April. Critics of ranked-choice voting criticized the timing of this, of course. That doesn't leave us or didn't leave the city a whole lot of time to engage folks and show them sample ballots and tell them what the new system might be like. One of the interesting quotes from the story is a pollster, a consulting guy saying, "We voted on this in 2019, and then we expected a two-year education campaign that never came." The mayor has defended the timing. He says that it's organic and it's something that occurred at the moment that folks were tuning into the race.

Brian Lehrer: How are you finding, with the voters you're talking to this morning, that ranked-choice voting is going for them?

Ese Olumhense: I think the folks who are the most engaged, the folks who are turning out, the folks who participated in early voting knew about this. There weren't folks here that seemed very confused by it. The city is also handing or the BOE is also handing out resources here in a number of different languages that show you a sample ballot and then explain how the ranked-choice process works.

Brian Lehrer: Well, anything else you've noticed that you want to throw in that we haven't talked about yet?

Ese Olumhense: Yes. In the Bronx, we have a really high population of young folks. According to the census, about a quarter of Bronx residents are under 18, so youth and schools are definitely something that are front of mind for voters. In addition to the mayoral race, I've seen a lot of support for Eric Adams here. As long as crimes continues to dominate the conversation, Eric Adams, a former police captain will speak with more authority. I think folks seem to be very supportive of his policies. Lots of folks have criticized defunding the police here today, something that breaks with some of the thinking that we've seen pushed by progressives here.

The Bronx borough president’s race is also something I would encourage folks to watch. We have the clash of council colleagues, Vanessa Gibson versus Fernando Cabrera. They're in adjoining districts. We may see the first woman elected. Of course, not right away with the ranked-choice absentee and affidavit ballot counting that still needs to happen. We may see the first woman elected to the office of Bronx borough president.

Brian Lehrer: We talked a little bit about the crime issue, and you just brought it up again. What about other things? I've been a little bit surprised by how much it has dominated the media. Not that it isn't real, not that it isn't vitally important, but dominated the candidates' choices about what to talk about over the endgame weeks of the campaign, and also the media coverage that follows the candidates. Inequality is such a huge issue in the city. There's jobs, there are other kinds of things. Is it your impression that almost everything is taking a backseat in voters’ minds to crime?

Ese Olumhense: I wouldn't say that. Of course, I haven't interviewed every voter. I would say that COVID recovery, youths, schools, and crime seem to be the biggest themes.

Brian Lehrer: Ese Olumhense, reporter for City Limits. Thanks a lot for checking in with us from The Bronx.

Ese Olumhense: Thank you so much.

Brian Lehrer: Now back to your calls on our Informal, Unofficial, Thoroughly Unscientific Primary Day Exit Poll. Ed, in Brooklyn. You're on WNYC. Hi, Ed.

Ed: Hey. Good morning, Brian. I voted for Kathryn Garcia, based on her experience and the fact that-- Well, mayors and mayoral candidates tend to suck a lot of the air out of the room. They're actually the boss to 300-some thousand employees in the city who are actually doing the work on the ground, especially when talking about crime, which was just mentioned. It's not just the PD. it's the Department of Education, it's the economic development programs, it's the cleanliness in the streets and activity in the streets. All that matters, and you need someone who understands the scope of the problem as well as how to solve that, which is not any one lever

.Brian Lehrer: Who'd you vote for second?

Ed: I voted for Wiley. I'm quite left. I think she's less tested, but I went with the group.

Brian Lehrer: Yes. Well, some people would say Katherine Garcia was not a vote for someone who's quite left. Did you mull that over?

Ed: Of course, I did. Yes. I believe in her ability to manage the bureaucracy, which is big. A lot of the resources in the past year have been over-exhausted, mostly meaning people and money, and the fact that we need someone who can really hit the ground running day one. Scott Stringer, I think is also probably most qualified in that regard.

Brian Lehrer: Ed, thank you very much for your call. Happy primary day. Lisa in Manhattan, you're on WNYC. Hello, Lisa.

Lisa: Yes, hi. Thanks for taking my call. I voted for mayor to Scott Stringer, and I didn't rank anybody else. I think Stringer is very competent. He knows government, he understands how things work. The other people I was thinking of ranking Garcia and Eric Adams, but I got very annoyed at the-- Well, I don't like charter schools, so that was going to rule them out eventually, I guess. I was very annoyed when Garcia caved in on the harassment charges against Stringer, which I think are a hit job.

Brian Lehrer: Meaning that she called for him to drop out of the race.

Lisa: Yes, and the others who all called for him to drop out. I really wonder who Jean Kim might be plugged into and why she suddenly popped up with this and the other one. I just didn't fall for it. I didn't rank any of the others. I want him to win. I think he is the most capable and competent.

Brian Lehrer: Did you vote for Manhattan DA?

Lisa: Yes, I hadn't made that my mind up as I walked to the polling place on Friday. I was going back and forth between Liz Crotty and Alvin Bragg, and I finally voted for Crotty.

Brian Lehrer: What tipped you over to her column?

Lisa: I can't even tell you. I think she's very competent from what I've known of her. I think she'll be good at it. I think Bragg would be too. It was a very painful decision. That was the one race I really wish I could have ranked.

Brian Lehrer: That's the one you couldn't. Lisa, thank you so much for checking in with us. We really appreciate it. Maura in Forest Hills, you're on WNYC. Hi Maura.

Maura: Hi Brian. Thank you very much. I love your show.

Brian Lehrer: Thank you. Who'd you vote for, for mayor?

Maura: I voted for Maya Wiley as my first choice and Katherine Garcia for my second.

Brian Lehrer: Why did you pick Maya Wiley first?

Maura: I really want to see a woman in the office, and I'd like a progressive person. I was really torn between whether to go with Garcia first or Wiley and I decided that Wiley is a bit more progressive, but I also value Garcia's experience as well. I think we have some good options for mayor in the two of them, so that's great.

Brian Lehrer: How was your ranked-choice voting experience?

Maura: It was pretty good. Can I pass along a tip related to that for those who were using the ballot marking device?

Brian Lehrer: You bet.

Maura: For anybody who was using it, using the ballot marking device with speech-enabled so that it will read aloud your ballot. I was a little surprised that when you vote for your first choice for mayor, it says you have completely voted this contest. I must say I thought like, "Oh no. Oh no, how do I--?" Then I felt, "Well, let me just see what happens if I move to the next contest." The next contest is the next choice rather than the next race, so to speak. I was a little surprised by that. I just thought, in case others are voting with the ballot marking device, that it might help to be aware of that. Don't worry that you will have the option to rank the choices. It's just the wording is a little bit different than I would have expected.

Brian Lehrer: It sounds like a [crosstalk] bad choice of words. If they say, "Go on to the next contest," it sounds like it would be the next election, but it's really the contest for who you're going to rank second.

Maura: Yes, exactly. When you get there, it does say something like, "Mayoral choice two." Once you do that, you realize, "Oh, okay. Now I get how it's doing it." It would really be helpful in the resources if information about how the ballot marking device works would be included. I don't think, at any polling place, the board of elections was distributing any resources in braille, which is surprising. Maybe not surprising. I would just say also to anybody, persevere in the ballot marking device. I often have had experiences where it's not set up, it's not ready, the staff person who knows how to use it is not there, but I had a very good experience at my polling place, my early voting polling place this time. A much better experience than I've ever had at my regular polling place.

Hopefully, after all these years of having accessible voting, maybe we're finally getting to where people know how to use it and it's set up from the beginning. I've often had people at the polls tell me that it's not set up yet even when I had arrived later than the 6:00 AM start, and their response has been that nobody has wanted to use it, so they didn't set it up in time. Of course, it's a vicious cycle. If it's not set up, people may not be able to use it because they can't wait around for 45 minutes to an hour for it to actually get set up. I think, hopefully, we're getting better at this.

Brian Lehrer: Maura, thank you so much for checking in with us and for all of that. Really appreciate it. Jay in lower Manhattan, you're on WNYC. Hi Jay, who'd you vote for, for mayor?

Jay: Bryan, I love the show. Eric Adams. Eric all the way. The reason why is because he's had so much experience providing constituent services in state and in government, and I know he does a very good job with it. That's a very different kind of competency, like the previous caller was talking about, with Garcia, with her empathy. My sense of her is that she's very empathetic with the bureaucratic process.

What I think you'd get with a Garcia administration is a cross between Bloomberg and de Blasio in terms of a 311 system that everyone goes through, and there really isn't any effort to be really concerned with constituents and how to help them on a personal individualized way. I think that Eric Adams, in all his offices, has always had a really excellent, robust constituent service infrastructure, and that's the competency I want in a mayor. I don't want someone who tickets me really well when there's garbage in front of my house or something like that.

The other races that I did want to mention, Mark Levine did such an important and fantastic job during the COVID epidemic as health chair. I really think he earned the borough presidency. Brad Hoylman is smart also, but Mark really did a fantastic job for our communities. I also wanted to mention District 1, Jenny Lowe, who is just the most fantastic, wonderful candidate. I think she is endorsed by just about every elected official except for Margaret Chin who's the outgoing council person there, who is a very polarizing figure. She's endorsed by just about every union and local clubs and local leaders and neighborhood groups as well.

It's an interesting race because you have several Chinese American candidates running for a district that was originally designed to be a Chinese representation because it includes Chinatown, and you have to worry about the different Chinese candidates diluting the vote. Of course, ranked-choice voting may change that, but really I hope that everyone who lives in lower Manhattan is ranking Jenny Lowe cause she really has a fantastic candidate.

Brian Lehrer: One other thing about your first choice vote for Eric Adams, some people who are turned off by him don't like how hardcore he seems on policing. We talked to him yesterday on the show and he was explaining the way he sees it. He's not really bringing back stop-and-frisk, he wouldn't put it that way. He's not bringing back the anti-crime unit in the way that was abusive in the past, but he thinks some plainclothes anti-gun unit is important. Other people see him as not police reformist enough. Did you consider that? It sounds like most of your reasons for choosing Adams had to do with other things. I'm just curious because crime has been so much in the news and police reform, and that they get counter opposed against each other in a lot of the framing, if that was an issue for you one way or the other?

Jay: I did think about that. Eric Adams, from what I've heard, has made it very clear that he takes a nuanced approach to policing because he was a police officer. We have a terrible situation in Washington Square Park and just in street crime in general and quality of life crime in lower Manhattan, and I don't want someone who goes to one extreme or the other in terms of how to deal with it. I want someone who looks at it and tries to take apart the problem and really solve it. I think a former police officer should be qualified to do that, but I also think he's someone who took on the police department from within when there were abuses, when he was aware of abuse as either in their internal policies towards officers, or in terms of how they policed communities of color.

My family is mixed race and I certainly would not vote for someone if I thought it was going to lead to abuses. I think that this is someone who knows how police officers think. When I talk about empathy with bureaucrats, I'd much rather have a mayor with empathy for constituents and empathy for police officers so you can get them to do their job properly with positive reinforcement than someone who has empathy for bureaucracy.

Brian Lehrer: Jay, thank you for your call. We really appreciate it. We'll continue in a minute with our Informal, Unofficial, Thoroughly Unscientific Primary Day Exit Poll.

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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC with our Informal, Unofficial, Thoroughly Unscientific Exit Poll. Who did you choose for mayor of New York or in any other race? Quick note, if anybody's interested in seeing me on TV later, I'll be a guest of Christiane Amanpour, that'll be on Channel 13 at four o'clock this afternoon, talking about the primary. Christine Quinn will be the other guest, the former city council speaker. Christine and Christiane and me at four o'clock on channel 13 today. Before we go back to the phones, I thought about turnout, just for some context. A turnout of at least 800,000 people would be considered good according to most experts. Over a million, very good in the New York City mayoral primary.

As a point of comparison, in 2013, the last competitive mayoral primary, about 700,000 people voted. There was 22% of registered Democrats in that primary, which was about average by historical standards. 22% turnout of registered Democrats. That shows how pathetic turnout in primaries is generally. Just 22% is really awful when you think about it. In the Republican primary that year, 2013, only 12% of the registered Republicans actually voted. That was only 60,000 votes out of the 470,000 or so registered republicans in the city in 2013 according to The New York Times. Democrats, don't forget, have about a 6:1 or 7:1 registration advantage in the city. We'll see what happens today in each party and whether massive voter turnout for last year's presidential election translates into people being engaged and showing up, or maybe people being apathetic because they don't have anyone as polarizing or life-changing as Donald Trump to vote for or against.

More than 100,000 absentee ballots that people requested are still out there as of a day or two ago, according to what I've seen reported. We'll see if people do return those extra 100,000 plus, and we'll see how much the easing of the pandemic results in Election Day of turnout today. In any case, 25% turnout of registered voters is less than 5% of all New York City residents. Only an activated few New Yorkers of the eligible age and citizenship status actually choose our mayor. I thought you'd be interested in a little background on turnout in that respect. Robert in Hell's Kitchen, you're on WNYC. Hi, Robert, who'd you vote for, for mayor?

Robert: I voted for Andrew Yang.

Brian Lehrer: Andrew Yang first and who second?

Robert: Kathryn Garcia.

Brian Lehrer: Did that have anything to do with their campaigning together recently, or had you already made that choice?

Robert: I hadn't made that choice actually, already. I actually had Kathryn Garcia first, but then I decided to change it to Andrew Yang because I thought he was-- I don't know, I just really liked what he was saying. What I wanted to say was that when I went to vote this morning, I actually went to the voting place and I'm fully vaccinated. I am not anti-mask whatever. When I got there, I had forgotten my mask, so literally, I just walked out the door. It's really on the same block. They wouldn't let me vote. They said, "No, you have to wear a mask." I was like, "Do you have a mask?" They wouldn't give me one, so I had to go back to my house and get one and come back. I was like, "This is really weird."

Brian Lehrer: For one thing, it's a good thing to remind people of, even if you're not wearing masks anymore in various environments, I guess they are requiring them inside the polling places. That's one thing to take away from your call. That's correct, right?

Robert: I guess, yes. I was very unsure because I was like, I didn't think that it was a thing.

Brian Lehrer: Yes. It doesn't sound like you were happy about it, but you can understand it, right? You're going into mixed company, you don't know--

Robert: I totally understand it. I totally get it, but I feel like it would end up hurting people from voting because maybe they go there and that's the only time to go vote and they don't have a mask. That's what I'm saying.

Brian Lehrer: I thought I had heard something last week about masks being available for handing out during early voting at the sites. Maybe I got that wrong, but obviously, they didn't have them at your polling place today. Tell us a little bit more about your choices. Why Andrew Yang? Why Kathryn Garcia?

Robert: At first, I thought of Kathryn Garcia as the first choice because I thought that she had a really pragmatic approach to the city, but then when I was listening to Andrew Yang, I just really felt like he really loved the city. He just has this really good idea. I'm certainly not a super progressive. I'm a very centrist person. I just thought that he was-- Not only does he have New York City in his mind, but he knows what to do with it. That's why I put him in first and Kathryn Garcia second. I would be happy with either one of them.

Brian Lehrer: What do you say to the critics who said, "Well, Andrew Yang doesn't historically have New York City in his mind all that much. He hasn't previously voted in a mayoral election according to the records that got revealed. When the pandemic started he decamped to New Paltz." Did those things cross your mind at all or did you dismiss them for certain reasons?

Robert: Funny you ask them because I literally have lived in New York City for almost 20 years and I don't vote in every election. I just don't because I'm not that intuned with it as much and, also, I think he just has good ideas.

Brian Lehrer: When you say good ideas, I'm curious. I'm asking a lot of people this question about how much crime and policing was at the top of your issue list versus other things? What was that like for you and were there certain ideas that Yang had that you thought jumped out for you on issues that you really care about?

Robert: Yes, totally. It's because there's the idea of "defund the police" really is totally against me. I really feel we need to actually support the NYPD but also, I don't think that we need to go hardcore like Republican into the police. That's why I liked him. I felt like he was like that even keel between Eric Adams and Maya Wiley. He was like the middle ground, and I really liked that.

Brian Lehrer: Robert, thanks for checking in with us. We really really appreciate it. This is WNYC FM, HD, and AM, New York. WNJT-FM 88.1 Trenton, WNJP 88.5 Sussex, WNJY 89.3 Netcong, and WNJO 90.3 Toms River. We are a New York and New Jersey public radio. One more call for now then we're going to get the latest news from Michael Hill. Katie in Brooklyn, you're on WNYC. Hi, Katie.

Katie: Hi. I voted for Paperboy, as my first choice,

Brian Lehrer: Paperboy Prince. Some people have heard of him, some people haven't. Give people Paperboy Prince 101.

Katie: I've been following him since last summer and actually voted for him and the District 7 primary last summer. He was on the ballot. He has this message of love. I've been pretty impressed with him. He's given away over $2.5 million of food since the pandemic started. He actually is a very capable person. He got himself on the ballot in the district primary last year, won an appeal all on his own. He was initially rejected from the ballot. I like that he's out there with this alternative message of how we can run the city in a different way. I don't necessarily think he's going to win the mayor race today, but I wanted to just show some support and say like, "I'm not worried about the crime so much as I am worried about the police." That's where I am.

Brian Lehrer: If you voted for someone who you don't think has an actual chance to win first, did you rank somebody who you do think has an actual chance to win second?

Katie: Yes, I ranked Maya Wiley second.

Brian Lehrer: Katie, thank you so much. We appreciate your call. Brian Lehrer on WNYC. As our Informal, Unofficial, Thoroughly Unscientific Primary Day Exit Poll continues, we've got a couple of special guests coming up as well after the news and more of your calls. Right now it is time for the latest news with Michael Hill.

 

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