For the fourth-straight general election cycle, New Yorkers had the opportunity to cast their vote early – and this October/November was the second highest early vote ever.
Only the 2020 presidential election saw the earliest votes in New York City overall, with more than a million cast members during that heated campaign, which also took place amid the COVID-19 campaign. This year, 432,634 New Yorkers exercised their voting rights in five boroughs, with the most votes coming from Brooklyn and Manhattan – which each had more than 100,000 voters.
Look at the glass half empty, and you’ll see that early turnout turnout was almost 60% lower than in 2020. But look at the glass half full, and you’ll see that early 2022 turnout was almost double. What it was like in the polls during the 2021 mayoral election.
Overall, this is a good sign for New York’s democracy. The midterm elections certainly inspired the people of New York to cast their votes. We believe many of them, with the pandemic almost a consideration, may be ready to go back to standard Election Day voting today.
But the mere fact that every New York voter now has the option to cast their ballots almost whenever they want – either through early voting or on primary or election day – may help enhance the democratic process in New York for generations to come. will help.
At the national level, there has been a push against the concept of early voting and mail-in voting, with some – Namely MAGA Republican Calling to ban voting for one day.
We have to ask ourselves why any American would want to block other Americans from voting – or make it so difficult for them to do so.
Our politics may have cynically turned an election into a win-lose, like a sporting event, but voting and democracy mean much more than that.
It may sound ludicrous, but we are fortunate to live in a country where we choose our leaders, and don’t let leaders choose them for us. We are fortunate to have a government that we establish with our votes, which is dedicated to working for our benefit and the good of all.
Over the years, we worked as Americans to remove many other barriers that kept all Americans from voting – from gender discrimination, voting taxes and literacy tests to changing age restrictions that allowed all Americans to vote. “Old enough to fight, old enough to vote”. ,
Early voting serves to empower all of us more as it removes time constraints. It empowers all of us who cannot easily distance ourselves from work or other obligations and with more flexibility to make our voices heard.
We have the power to do so now, and may we always have it in every election to come.
