Angely Mercado
This year’s midterm elections made a lot of Bushwick (and Ridgewood and East Williamsburg) residents hit the polls.
The national and citywide buildup to this year’s midterms were emotional, there were calls for a #bluewave online and even some local scandals on the way to November 6.
This year, the IDC lost it’s power in New York State making the state truly blue, and in Bushwick, some incumbents are out and some are still in.
Here are the local results of this year’s elections:
During the primary, Julia Salazar beat incumbent Martin Dylan. She’ll be heading to Albany to represent North Brooklyn’s 18th District.
Congressmember Nydia Velázquez is going to continue to represent District 7. Other notable wins include incumbent Hakeem Jeffries for District 8 and incumbent Maritza Davila won her State Senate race for District 53.
Throughout the city (and the nation) there was a lot of reporting about voter suppression. Low income communities and communities of color tend to have to wait longer to vote and are more likely to deal with poll closures, less scanning machines and even broken machines.
And in the case of Brooklyn during the 2016 elections, there were voter purges that removed a significant number of registered voters before the primaries.
People in Bushwick, Ridgewood and East Williamsburg didn’t necessarily complain about wait times online, but many residents were excited by the voter turnout this year.
Nichole Hernandez, 24, who was born and raised in Washington Heights, recently moved to Brooklyn and was excited to vote in her new borough, she was also pleasantly surprised with the turnout and loved seeing older people come vote.
“Every vote counts, it’s important, we have a say in what happens in our world,” she said. “We could’ve done more to prevent our current administration.”
Deneese Ortiz, 26, a lifelong resident of Ridgewood voted at PS 239. Her concern for immigration issues, affordable healthcare and education made her hit the polls 6:20 a.m.
“All the little cubicles to fill out the ballot were full but things moved quickly,” she wrote in an email to Bushwick Daily. “I was surprised because I’m used to seeing few people so early in the morning.”
Nicole Peoples, 34, was happy to see a line at her polling area, as well as a diverse group of people.
“Most importantly we are voting to change the current administration and undo its harm,” she said.