New York Primary Day Informal, Unofficial, Thoroughly Unscientific Exit Polls

**Brian Lehrer** (0:10)
It's The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC.
Good morning, everyone, and happy New York primary day. Beautiful day for a primary.
Not. And with low turnout already an issue in many races, we'll see what effect today's wet weather has if the weather comes as forecast. But it is primary day, and WNYC and Gothamist senior political reporter Brigid Bergin is here to help answer any last-minute primary day questions because she knows how all this works as well as anyone on Earth. And Brigid will help take your calls and texts. In our informal, unofficial, thoroughly unscientific New York primary exit poll, Jon Campbell will be along in a little while to help with that as well. We'll open the phones in just a second in a particular way, so don't call yet. But first, let's welcome in Brigid. Hey, Brigid, happy New York primary day to you.

**Brigid Bergin** (1:02)
Good morning, Brian. Happy primary day.

**Brian Lehrer** (1:04)
And listeners, rather than do this randomly, like all the races at once, scattershot, we'll do a few sets of calls on specific races. We had candidate forums or debates here in the five seriously contested Democratic congressional primaries taking place today. We'll try to include all of those districts and some down ballot races as well. We're not going to be able to get in a robust way to everything. So we've kind of picked out a few to concentrate on, but we'll get to everything at least to some degree in the 45 minutes or so that we have for this segment. And we'll start with the race to succeed Congressman Gerald Nadler, who is retiring after 17 two-year terms in New York's 12th congressional district, which runs basically from 14th Street up through the East and West sides to, let's say, just below Columbia University, at least on the West. It includes Gracie Mansion on the East, where a certain prominent voter said he did cast a ballot, but won't say for whom, even as he endorsed in three other congressional races that he's not voting in. We'll talk about that a little bit. This one has five candidates who met the criteria for the debate, that Brigid and I moderated with Errol Lewis from New York One, alphabetically as we do, Alex Boris, George Conway, Michael Asher, Jack Schlossberg, and Nina Schwalbe. I had to check whether Schlossberg or Schwalbe came first. So listeners who have voted already or will vote today in that race, our first informal, unofficial, thoroughly unscientific New York primary exit poll is for you. Who are you for to succeed Jerry Nadler?
We're going to ask when you made up your mind. But electioneering, welcome here in New York 12, 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692, call or text, 212-433-WNYC.
Brigid, as some New York 12 calls are coming in, you want to give us the primary day basics first? Like we already have a text from somebody who wrote, you are neglecting your civic duty to properly and fully inform your audience and you admit the fact that it is primary election day only for those registered with one of the two national political parties, a systemic restriction that penalizes anyone who chooses to evaluate and vote for political candidates outside of the dualist construct. So obviously, that person wants open primaries, but who can vote today?

**Brigid Bergin** (3:41)
Well, as you said, Brian, New York State currently has a closed, New York State and New York City have a closed primary system. So primarily, the people going out to vote today are Democrats, registered Democrats. The vast majority of the contests on the ballot today are for Democratic primaries. I will note, in service of being complete and satisfying our full civic duty, there are a small number of Republican primaries. There is one for the 86th Assembly District in the West Bronx, for the 22nd Senate District in Brooklyn, and that's kind of the Borough Park, Sheepshead Bay area, in the 26th Assembly District in Northeast Queens. And then there is that third Congressional District, which we, as you will remember, Ryan spent a lot of time talking about a few years ago, was once represented by a man named George Santos.
There is a Republican primary there. That district is primarily in Nassau County, but it dips into Northeast Queens. So for Republicans in those areas, we want you to know where your polls are open today. But for Democrats, there is a statewide primary for state controller. And then as we will talk about some pretty competitive congressional races and some state legislative races across the area.

**Brian Lehrer** (5:08)
You reported that early voting turn out, of course early voting was from last Saturday through Sunday, two days ago, was down 55 percent from last year, with just five percent of eligible voters casting ballots citywide. That of course is just counting the five boroughs. And that sounds epically bad, but is it actually just normal? You know, and last year was just an aberration because of the intensity of the mayoral primary, especially the Cuomo versus Mamdani, Mamdani versus Cuomo aspect of it in 2025?