New York City Councilman Fernando Cabrera was joined by City Board of Elections Director Mike Ryan last Wednesday to reveal the results of New York City’s early voting, which was implemented this year in what’s considered a very sleepy election season. 

From Oct. 26 through Nov. 3, 60,110 people came out to the polls to participate in early voting, with 4,893 of those voters registered casting a ballot in the Bronx, the New York City Board of Elections announced at a news conference the day after Election Day. The overall number of total voters in general elections has shown an increase over the last few years. While the early voter turnout was only eight percent of the estimated total voter turnout for this year’s general election, Cabrera and Ryan declared victory for the period. 

“At the end of the day I am very happy. I was also very pleased with the amount of people that came out to vote. It was double 2016, which tells me that having nine days of early voting, we can probably have a pretty good correlation. The message of telling people to go vote [early], it permeated and became part of the consciousness of people to go vote,” said Carbera in a phone interview with the Norwood News. 

The ballots were open across the state for county and municipal races. Due to the absence of federal or statewide contention on ballots, voting attendance was expected to be low. The new addition of electronic poll books along with a more organized process is good news for the upcoming April primaries and next year’s marquee presidential election. 

“It was a great proving ground testing run for the big President election primary in April. The poll workers had an opportunity to test out the new systems in place, they’re able to work out any kinks if any to be ready come April,” said Carbrera. 

Other parts of the ballot included five referendums to the City Charter on issues such as ranked-choice voting, expanding the powers of the Civilian Complaint Review Board and expanding the period of the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure.

“Every single person I’ve spoken to said it was a positive experience and that’s what we want to create. We want to create a culture where people know it’s a good experience and know it’s a lot easier to go vote, rejoice,” Cabrera said on the feedback he received from early voters. 

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Welcome to the Norwood News, a bi-weekly community newspaper that primarily serves the northwest Bronx communities of Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham and University Heights. Through our Breaking Bronx blog, we focus on news and information for those neighborhoods, but aim to cover as much Bronx-related news as possible. Founded in 1988 by Mosholu Preservation Corporation, a not-for-profit affiliate of Montefiore Medical Center, the Norwood News began as a monthly and grew to a bi-weekly in 1994. In September 2003 the paper expanded to cover University Heights and now covers all the neighborhoods of Community District 7. The Norwood News exists to foster communication among citizens and organizations and to be a tool for neighborhood development efforts. The Norwood News runs the Bronx Youth Journalism Heard, a journalism training program for Bronx high school students. As you navigate this website, please let us know if you discover any glitches or if you have any suggestions. We’d love to hear from you. You can send e-mails to norwoodnews@norwoodnews.org or call us anytime (718) 324-4998.