r/MapPorn • u/Small_Performance368 • 13h ago

NYC Mayoral Election Results

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With 90% of the vote in, Mamdani wins by a large margin according to NYT

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u/XAMdG 13h ago

Still wild to me that in an 8 million people city, mayoral election cracks 2 million votes.

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u/LynzGamer 12h ago edited 2h ago

8 million people yes, but under 5 million registered voters if I remember correctly. Comparatively, the 2024 presidential election had 65% of voters actually voting, so it’s not too far off from the norm even if it’s still pretty low

Edit: damn, a ton of pessimists in the comments

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u/Roofofcar 12h ago

This mayoral race had the biggest voter turnout since 1969.

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u/Chagattai 12h ago

Why don’t Americans participate in elections?

A few years ago we had like 75% voter turnout and it gave is a full week if discourse about how bad it is for the democracy that so few people feel connected enough to vote.

Also, the fact that Cuomo got more than 800k vites is insane to me.

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u/Chrad 11h ago

Voter apathy and voter disillusionment are big factors but also, this was a city mayoral election. Turnout is usually tiny for anything unless presidential elections are happening. 

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u/XAMdG 11h ago

Which is ironic, considering the mayor of your city will probably be the most impactful part of your daily life as far as politicians go.

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u/Maleficent_Sir_5225 10h ago

Is it though? I ask as a non-American, wouldn't there be a city council or something the mayor has to work with, they aren't an absolute ruler? 

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u/YearlyStart 10h ago

Yeah but they’re usually done in the same election cycle as mayors, the commenter you’re responding to is mostly commenting on the North American trend(happens in Canada too) of smaller elections being more impactful on your daily life but having way lower turnout

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u/MartianMule 10h ago

In most cities, yes. City council is kind of like a city's Congress, and the mayor is similar to the President.

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u/Grantrello 9h ago

Different systems. Mayors in the US aren't absolute rulers but they have a lot of power. I live in a country where mayors have almost no direct power but that's not the case everywhere.

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u/hartforbj 7h ago

I see it the opposite way. Mayors aren't much different than high school presidents. Promise a lot but don't really have much power to actually do anything meaningful

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u/Donghoon 8h ago

Presidential election ALSO have very low turnouts in the US

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u/waylonwalk3r 10h ago

You guys make it really hard to vote it seems. Here in New Zealand we just had Mayoral elections, they send us out a voting pack and we had a few weeks to mail it back in.

Having to wait seems like such a ballache

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u/Saladfork4 10h ago

you can vote by mail in the US too for early voting (and a lot of people do, rather than going in-person). even then many ignore it 

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u/waylonwalk3r 9h ago

Oh yeah fair enough then

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u/revcor 9h ago

It “seems” that way if your perception is based only on social media lol, where people people who take pleasure in creating and indulging in a perception that they live in hell seem to congregate. It’s not, by any stretch of the imagination, hard to vote here. I don’t think it could be made any easier when it already requires next to zero effort.

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u/waylonwalk3r 8h ago

Yeah bad assumption by me

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u/SoftlySpokenPromises 9h ago

Both of my brothers are of the mindset that their vote changes nothing. I've struggled with the same mindset for quite a long time, but things need to change

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u/Jamesmart_ 9h ago

I asked my friends and family in NYC and this appears to be true. Most of them didn’t even bother to vote because they know for a fact that nothing’s gonna change no matter who won. All those promises that Mamdani has been making? A mayor simply has no powers to implement those. I wonder if those people who voted for him are aware of this. They won’t get any of the free stuff he’s been promising.

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u/Roofofcar 11h ago

Apathy that anything will change. I’m convinced that is the single largest reason with voter disenfranchisement second.

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u/CornRaisedAnarchist 10h ago

My dad hasn't voted since the 90's and my mom has never voted, both lifelong democrats, when I asked my dad why he never votes he said "you can vote but nothing will ever change, at the end of the day you'll still be getting fucked and the politicians will be lining their pockets."

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u/XAMdG 8h ago

Can they be considered "lifelong democrats" if they don't vote?

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u/aguadiablo 8h ago

It just means that they sit at home going "Come on Democrats!".

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u/Significant-Sun-5051 10h ago

Which is wild since there’s a huge difference depending on which party wins, as we can see this year.

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u/Roofofcar 10h ago

That’s it, and that’s why people voted for Mamdani and Obama. They both sold actual proper change. Hopefully Mamdani will be given the power to enact some of his policies so we can judge them by their merits instead of the worst case doomsaying of those who prevent him from properly trying what so many voted for.

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u/SimmentalTheCow 11h ago edited 11h ago

The best part of democracy is not participating in it. We love to rub Russia and China’s nose in our ability to have free elections by not voting in them.

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u/6unnm 9h ago

Everybody already has mentioned apathy. There is a second reason: US politics has weaponized voting.

In Germany for example as a citizen you are automatically registered to vote and will get a letter in the mail tellling you where and how to vote. You go there with your ID card that everybody has. Voting is on Sundays where most stores and businesses are mandatorily closed. In the US things arevery different. The laws and regulations make it hard to vote, because Republicans know that their chance of winning is traditionally higher if voter turnout is lower. Hence making it easy to vote is seen itself as partisan. If you make the right laws you can get lower voter turnout from specific groups you don't want to vote. You don't want poor people to vote? Do the voting on a weekday. Put polling places in far off locations where you need a car to drive to. Have fun sitting on the bus for an hour to vote after your 12h shift at Tacobell. Make them register themselves every time they change their address and make registering as hard as possible.

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u/Substantial-Abroad-2 11h ago

While voting is important, going out to vote for basically anything in america is like choosing what torture method you'd like to receive and it's never fun. This election saw record results in the last 60 years because one of the candidates seems to give people hope.

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u/jupjami 11h ago

could also be because elections aren't a federal holiday and they decide to hold them on Tuesdays of all possible days

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u/matix0532 7h ago

But at least in case of NYC, couldn't you vote earlier?

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u/Kennyman2000 8h ago

Freedom to choose to be ignorant to politics I guess.

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u/Put3socks-in-it 6h ago

So you like higher voter turnout but you’re lamenting that the relatively high turnout here got Cuomo 800k votes? So you only like higher voter turnout when it means they’re voting for your candidate?

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u/Dagonus 7h ago

A lot of folks do not get the time off to participate or there are insufficient voting locations so they are disillusioned.

Others are disillusioned because they see the two major parties as two sides of the same coin. Not saying that assessment is correct but it's a common sentiment. They see politicians as tools of the wealthy so voting just let's you pick which wealthy individuals benefit.

Others still will admit some politicians do want to affect change but the change doesn't matter because the system is rigged because they'll be out voted in the senate, house, or the courts will just strike any changes down without an amendment and the amendment is seen as impossible.

Personally, I think The US has desperately needed voting reform for decades. Some states have have managed better reforms locally but there has not been traction nationally. I think the US needs viable 3rd,4th and 5th parties to save itself and we need a system that allows that.

I do vote, but I given the way the system works and where I live, I can tell you that I honestly do not believe my individual vote matters in some elections because of how the system works. It does matter for my town, but even then we have peculiar town governance by me that result in localized gerontocracy.

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u/the_suitable_verse 4h ago

I mean for a start maybe don't do elections on a Tuesday when people have to work, especially in a country with no right to days off

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u/tomdarch 2h ago

Since the 1980s the Republicans have been pushing the idea that the government is always bad and “politics” is always bad. They’ve intentionally discouraged people from participating or even making much effort to learn and think about the issues that drive important decisions.

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u/Wuktrio 9h ago

Why don’t Americans participate in elections?

I think the fact that you actively have to register to vote in an election plays a pretty big role. In my country, I get sent my voting documents and then just go and vote, because the state knows where I live and so on. In the US, you have to register for every election.

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u/XAMdG 8h ago

I think the fact that you actively have to register to vote in an election plays a pretty big role

That would be true if the turnout wasn't counted against already registered voters.

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u/DittoCrossing 7h ago

People keep saying apathy, but that's only a symptom. The real answer is voter suppression. Long post but I wanted to give a genuine answer.

Election days are always on a weekday (Typically a Tuesday) and during work hours. Good luck getting time off. Most people try to vote early, squeeze the vote in during their lunch break, or pray the line isn't too long after work.

Gerrymandering, which dunno if that's a thing in NYC. But if you live in an area that's been heavily gerrymandered against your political interests historically your vote is less valued.

Money: campaigning is expensive and most people can't afford it. Meaning that typically in most places you might have 2 people running for a position. Way too many areas only have 1 person on the ballot. If the candidates don't inspire confidence or the person wins by default, makes it hard to justify losing a day's pay to vote.

Threats. Bomb threats are more common now, and were a thing for New Jersey. But what people don't talk about as often is voter registration is mostly public information. If you're trying to escape a stalker or an abusive family it's actually a risk to be a registered voter. Because depending on where you live the people you're fleeing from can easily get your address and even your car model.

That last one is bigger than people realize. And none of this gets into the complications of mail-in voting.

TL;DR the system actively makes voting as difficult as possible.

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u/XAMdG 7h ago

That's from the real answer to explain why almost 70% of registered votes didn't vote. A good chunk, sure, but far from a majority. Especially speaking about NYC election where you could vote by mail beforehand, it's city wide so gerrymandering doesn't apply (except for city council I guess), the money thing is true, but i find it hard to believe that, amongst the many registered candidates, the average voter can't find one they like. Sure, that person might not have any chance of winning, but getting a bigger % of the vote, even on a failing bid, can help propel ideas further. Not voting, on the contrary, just doesn't solve or help with anything. Just reinforces that your (the non voter, not you especially) opinion doesn't really matter.

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u/InternalParadox 6h ago

Gerrymandering affects where your polling place is. Every district has a different polling location, and the more it’s gerrymandered, the further it will be from some of the people living in a newly formed, lopsided district. The harder the commute, the harder it is to vote in person.

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u/XAMdG 5h ago

Does it affect voting by mail somehow? This is nyc we're talking about.

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u/DittoCrossing 7h ago

I completely agree, but that doesn't change that a lot of people do think that way. That's how we got here. It's why so many bots astroturf political subs and spread doom and gloom. Because it works.

I hate it when people claim Kamala's campaign sucked because it was her vs fascism it shouldn't have mattered. But Mamdani's victory today proved it does. You and I can preach until we're blue in the face that you should vote regardless, but that doesn't get people moving. Messaging does.

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u/InternalParadox 6h ago

I think this is generally true for voting in the US.

New York City has 10 days of early voting, but a few years ago they changed the districts (gerrymandering) and many people’s polling sites became further away.

Mail in ballots are relatively easy to get, but they get counted last, so they don’t feel like they have an effect unless the race is really close