Brooklyn led every county in New York State in early voting, News10 reported: 219,536 Brooklyn voters checked in over the nine days that ended Sunday, Nov. 1, according to unofficial city Board of Elections figures, as statewide early turnout neared 2 million.
Statewide, 1,965,043 people voted early, 786,367 more than the 1,178,676 who did in 2022, the last governor's race, a 66.7 percent increase, according to unofficial state Board of Elections figures reported by CBS6 Albany and News10. In New York City, 690,526 voters checked in, up 59.6 percent from 2022 but about 6.1 percent below last year's mayoral election, amNewYork reported.
Manhattan followed Brooklyn with 188,434 check-ins, Queens had 162,914, the Bronx 67,630 and Staten Island 52,012, according to the city Board of Elections. Brooklyn's total was helped by 42,265 check-ins on Sunday alone, News10 reported, and was up 62.3 percent from 2022, though down 9.9 percent from last year's mayoral election, amNewYork reported. The figures count in-person early check-ins, not total turnout, which will also include ballots cast on Election Day and by mail, amNewYork noted.
The state count had already passed the entire 2022 early-voting total by Thursday, Oct. 29, when 1,277,235 people had voted, El Diario reported. The jump was clear from the start. Statewide, 703,055 people voted in the first three days, against 369,576 over the same stretch in 2022, a 90.2 percent increase, according to El Diario.
Earlier in the week, the New York Post reported that 294,604 city residents had voted in the first four days, a nearly 72 percent increase from the same point in the 2022 gubernatorial election and just over 3,000 behind the pace at the same point in last year’s mayoral election, citing city Board of Elections data. The Bronx led the surge, logging more than 30,000 early votes through Tuesday and nearly doubling the roughly 16,000 it had logged at the same point in 2022, the New York Post reported.
The first weekend set the pace. The city’s five boroughs recorded 165,143 ballots over the first two days, October 24 and 25, up 69.98 percent from 97,155 at the same point in 2022, according to the New York City Board of Elections, Korea Times New York reported. Queens saw the largest jump, more than doubling its 2022 turnout, followed by the Bronx, Brooklyn, Staten Island and Manhattan, Korea Times New York reported.
Long Island turnout climbed as well. Nassau County recorded 69,868 votes over the first three days, a 73.8 percent increase from 2022, and Suffolk County recorded 64,424, a 108.9 percent jump that doubled its earlier participation, El Diario reported. Across the counties outside New York City, early voting rose from 241,820 in the first three days of 2022 to 478,161 this year, El Diario reported.
New York had 13.4 million registered voters, about 12.5 million of them active, as of Feb. 20, 2026, El Diario reported, citing the state Board of Elections.
Voters said they wanted to lock in their ballots ahead of Election Day. José, a Dominican voter who cast his ballot Friday in Harlem, told El Diario he did not want to wait. “I consider our vote so important that I don’t want to wait until Tuesday, because if something happens I would be left without a say. And at this moment we have to tell the country how important the Hispanic vote is,” he said. He added that the candidacies of several Hispanic contenders were at stake “like never before,” El Diario reported.
Carolina González, a Colombian voter who also cast her ballot Friday in Harlem, pointed to the ease of the process. “The process is very simple, very quick. Honestly, if there’s the early voting option, it’s perfect because nobody has to wait in lines. There are no excuses not to vote. I didn’t take more than 15 minutes in this process,” she told El Diario.
Polls are open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 3, and Election Day poll sites can differ from early voting sites. Voters can confirm their assigned site and hours at findmypollsite.vote.nyc.
Featured image: Photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office (file photo). Graphic: Bushwick Daily; source: NYC Board of Elections, unofficial. Composite by Bushwick Daily
