Election Day turnout exceeds expectations in Downtown Brooklyn, parts of Bay Ridge

November 7, 2017 By Mary Frost; additional reporting by Paula Katinas Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Suffragist Gen. Rosalie Jones graces this year’s I Voted sticker. Eagle photo by Lore Croghan

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Despite predictions of historically low turnout, voter participation was steady and at times even brisk in Downtown Brooklyn, Brooklyn Heights and sections of Bay Ridge throughout the morning and early afternoon Tuesday.

More than 400 residents of Brooklyn Heights had cast their ballots by 11 a.m. at the polling site at 101 Clark St., and voters appeared to be streaming in at a steady pace thereafter. One voter speculated the unexpected contest between District 33 City Councilmember Stephen Levin and political novice Victoria Cambranes — both Greenpoint residents — may have sparked local interest.

The same trend was apparent at Borough Hall in Downtown Brooklyn. Lorraine Memminger, accessibility clerk at the polling site, told the Brooklyn Eagle at 1:15 p.m., “They were pouring in since six this morning and it hasn’t stopped yet. It’s a great turnout; it’s wonderful.”

Voting action was “steady” at 10 Clark St. in Brooklyn Heights, security told the Eagle.

Things were a little slower, however, at the Urban Assembly School on Adams Street. A polling site staffer told the Eagle, “It was heavy this morning but at noon it came to a halt. Now it’s not even a trot; it’s a slow trot.”

At Fort Hamilton Public Library in Bay Ridge, voting machines were in good working order as residents arrived to vote early Tuesday morning, according to Eagle reporter Lore Croghan. A room in the back of the library where voting machines were set up was full of polling workers around 7:15 a.m. At that time, just one voter was waiting for her turn in a privacy booth.

The polling site at the High School of Telecommunications on 67th Street and Fourth Avenue was lively at around 8:30 a.m., a Bay Ridge resident reports. While lines were not too long, every election district table had voters picking up ballots at that time.

Republican John Quaglione is up against Democrat Justin Brannan to succeed departing Councilman Vincent Gentile in District 43, perhaps spurring local interest.

Eagle reporter Paula Katinas noted that Vincent Gentile’s name was still on the ballot for Brooklyn DA under the Reform Party line, even though he lost the Democratic Primary for DA to Eric Gonzalez.

Katinas reports that turnout was low around 9:30 a.m. at her polling place at New Utrecht High School at 1601 80th St. Katinas was voter number 10 in her election district, about three and a half hours after the polls opened.

Katinas also discovered that both the Democratic and Republican candidates in the Bay Ridge City Council race (43rd Council District) vote in the same place. Democrat Justin Brannan and Republican John Quaglione informed Katinas that each would be voting Tuesday morning at Shore Hill, a senior citizen housing complex at 9000 Shore Road in Bay Ridge.

No word on whether they ran into each other.

The mayoral contest

In the race for mayor, Bill de Blasio was forecast to easily best his main opponent, Nicole Malliotakis of Staten Island. De Blasio cast his vote on his home turf in Park Slope.

The mayor was not without detractors, however, even in Downtown Brooklyn.

“A lot of people dislike de Blasio and the state of New York City, which appears to be regressing back to the 1980s,” said Brooklyn Heights resident Beth after voting at Borough Hall. Beth said she voted for Malliotakis because she stood the strongest chance to beat de Blasio.

“I wish he would go back to Cambridge, Massachusetts,” she added.

Cobble Hill resident Aaron Gelson, however, cast his vote for de Blasio. A former resident of Milwaukee, Gelson said de Blasio was nationally recognized and likely to win. Gelson added that he voted in favor of the Constitutional Convention (Proposition 1) and also for Proposition 2, which gives judges the right to revoke the pensions of public officials convicted of felonies.

While most voters had no trouble casting their votes, there were a few snafus. Journalist Heather Chin tweeted Tuesday morning that three of four ballot readers were down at James Madison High School in Madison, a neighborhood near Marine Park. The Board of Elections (BOE) has not yet responded to an email requesting information about the outage.

There was also some grumbling about the mayor stationing roughly 40 Russian- and Haitian-language interpreters from his Office of Immigrant Affairs outside 20 polling places in southern Brooklyn.

BOE already supplies translators for Spanish, Chinese, Korean and other Asian language speakers where needed. At 101 Clark Street in Brooklyn Heights, Spanish and Chinese interpreters sat at the ready, awaiting voters needing help with translation.

By 11 a.m., they had no takers.