All of the enthusiasm leading up to the midterms did not disappoint.
The elections had the highest voter turnout rate for a midterm election that this country has seen since 1966, with a reported 47 percent of registered voters casting a ballot.
People across the country were fired up for Tuesday’s election, and Bushwick was no exception.
In the race for the 18th Senate District, where Julia Salazar ran unopposed, 73,300 votes were cast, according to the New York State Unofficial Election Night Results. That’s up from only 29,600 votes in the same race in 2014, reflecting a 148 percent increase. Bushwick’s race for state assembly, where Maritza Davila ran for re-election unopposed, saw a similar surge in votes. The number of votes cast increased by 154 percent, with 30,400 ballots counted in 2018, up from only 12,000 in 2014.
And in Brooklyn, over 600,200 votes were cast in the gubernatorial election, compared with only 308,000 votes in the 2014 gubernatorial election, meaning that almost twice as many people showed up to vote.
All of that was able to happen despite plenty of election day hurdles, including terrible weather, long lines and malfunctioning voting machines. In fact, reports of issues with voting machines in the city were so widespread that Electionland compiled a map of all the voting sites with malfunctioning machines.
At least three of these reports came from voting sites in Bushwick.
So that’s your fast fact of the week, Bushwick! Have a question about the neighborhood that you want us to try and answer using data? Leave a comment below!
Cover image courtesy of Casey Robertson