Early voting now requiring less of a time commitment

Early voting opened last weekend, and at that point readers were reporting a two-hour-plus wait at our polling site on Houston and Sullivan — St. Anthony of Padua. But the latest reports show much shorter waits, under a half hour. I went on Wednesday at 4, when the line went around a full city block, but was still through the doors by 4:30.

The early voting hours have also been extended:
Friday, Oct. 30, 7a – 5p
Saturday, Oct. 31, 7a – 5p
Sunday, Nov. 1, 7a – 4p

Clearly the setup was not optimal — in fact the long lines violated state law. The obvious solution is to add more sites. Ordinarily there are 13 polling places south of Canal. For early voting, there were only 16 sites for all of Manhattan and just two south of Canal. Now of course those sites were open for nine days, so the math sort of works in the most simple calculation. But let’s hope (ok, not likely) the math the BOE noodles for next time is a bit more sophisticated.

Election Day hours are 6a to 9p. Check your polling place here or call 1-866-VOTE-NYC (1-866-868-3692).

 

 

8 Comments

  1. My son and I voted yesterday (Thursday) at 1:30 pm and there was no line. We were in and out in less than 10 minutes.

  2. The line this morning was long but moved (which was nice given the weather conditions!). I arrived at 6:50, polls opened at 7 and I was out by 7:35. If you bring your fast pass bar code, it expedites the time inside.

  3. Went to St Anthony’s today at 9:15 am…stepped out of the Uber and walked right inside – no line whatsoever. My wife and I were in & out of the building within 10 minutes. Recommend anyone who’s considering it to vote today while the weather is miserable and the lines are nonexistent.

  4. Left NBPC at 12:55pm in an uber, voted, and was back in NBPC at 1:30pm today. Line moved very quickly.

  5. Yesterday at 10:30AM (polls opened at 10AM) the line was intimidating! It snaked all the way to Macdougal. I never stood still in line though, because it kept moving! 20-25 minutes later I departed the building with my super cool sticker. My spouse went today around 9am and reported a similar experience.
    PRO TIPS:
    I second what Lisa said above, bring your voting card to make it a little more efficient – they will scan it instead of looking you up in the system.
    There are tons of poll workers there to keep things moving (it was a lot better organized than the PS234 site ever is) and if you need help or cannot stand in line for a health-related reason, one of them will direct you to the elevator and to expedite your entry.

  6. 13 polling places south of Canal for Election Day ora measly two two early voting places for nine days are unacceptable.

    We need a no-excuse ballot with prepaid postage return envelope, voter information card-keychain tag & I Voted sticker mailed to EVERY registered New York voter, a 24-7 access dropbox in EVERY precinct & early voting from Sunday September 1 through Sunday November 3, 2024 (the next presidential election.)

    We also need automatic voter registration at age 16, the voting age lowered to 17 (if you can vote in the general election on or after your 18th birthday you should be allowed to vote in the primary at 17) & a semi-open primary (independents should be allowed to vote too.)

  7. No line to vote today (Sunday) at 10am

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