Well, it’s done. I voted Liu to try to help move a runoff. Almost everyone else I know did exactly the same thing. It’s going to be an interesting night.
Can you imagine if everyone did that, and Liu took the primary outright?
I must admit it was satisfying to vote on the hulking, grey lever voting machines, rather than the scanner system that was such a disaster in the 2012 general election. I was in and out of there in just a couple of minutes, unlike last time when I had to wait hours in two long lines snaking around the school gym that is my polling place.
Long time no see, Billdo.
I was thrilled to use the old voting machines again, too.
I thought about what might happen if enough other New Yorkers overthought this as much as I did. I figured that plenty of people have union or other bloc commitments, so only a piece of the total pie is really discretionary. If there are enough spoilers, it could either force a runoff between de Blasio and Quinn or a runoff between de Blasio or Quinn and Liu or some other sleeper. De B/Q would surely beat a spoiler in a two-way runoff, but that would leave us no worse off than in a runoff between de B/Q in the first place.
My mind was made up when I thought about what might happen if a spoiler could win an outright majority. He would then likely lose to Lhota. When I realized that I would rather be a member of the opposition in a Lhota administration than a disgusted and disappointed democrat if de B/Q won, I pulled the lever for Liu.
Got my vote in, what, no stickers for primaries? Phooey. Had a moment of concern because the BOE website didn’t recognize me as a registered voter, but I was in the rolls. Whew. Love the old-school ka-thunkers. Took me back.
Anyone But Quinn 2013!
I have to say I really don’t get all the criticism of de Blasio for constantly being pictured with his family.
How many politicians are there who don’t regularly showcase their families during election campaigns?
Hell, a former Republican governor of Alaska had them in her own reality show.
I never heard about that! 
With about half the precincts counted de Blasio has about 39% of the vote. Thompson is in second with about 26% and Quinn has about 15%. So it will be a while before we know if there’s going to be a runoff or not- but if there is, it’ll be de Blasio and Thompson.
A Thompson de Blasio runoff will be very interesting,
They’ll be counting for a while, I’m sure. De Blasio seems to be right at 40% with almost all the votes counted, but then they’ll go through the provisional ballots and absentee ballots…
Yeah, I think that is not going to happen until Friday. I have no idea if there are enough that it could possibly change the results. The turnout was so low that it very well might.
Weiner sure went out not with a bang but a whimper. His little afterparty was a real spectacle.
I don’t know either. Right now de Blasio has about 40.2% of the vote, so he’s just above the threshold for a runoff. I have no idea how many uncounted ballots there are or who they might help. I guess it all comes down to crucial Waukesha county.
In non-mayor news, by the way, Scott Stringer beat Eliot Spitzer in the comptroller primary by about 52%-48%.
That was definitely a relief. He was up pretty much the entire time as the polls came in.
I’m happy that Reshma Saujani’s not going into the Public Advocate runoff, but I am equally disappointed that Gale Brewer won MBP. But all of the good people in my neighborhood really cleaned up, so the whole thing was far from a total loss.
It’s going to take longer than that, in fact. They’ll recount all the ballots later this week and then count the provisional and absentee ballots. There could be about 30,000 of those, and that would increase the number of ballots cast by around 5%.
Why so long? We primitives in the lesser provinces tend to think of NYC as the model of efficiency, the place where everything gets done in a New York minute.
I’m not sure why. But as far as New York City as a model of efficiency- behold our voting machines and despair.
Erk.
Y’know, in 19th-Century America, a ballot box was this glass globe in a wooden frame. The transparency prevents ballot-box-stuffing. When the polls close, the elections officer need simply break open the globe and count the votes, in public.
Why’d we have to get all fancy?!
Procedural question: If Thompson concedes, would that cancel the runoff?
Hmm. That kid – I haven’t seen an Afro since 1977!
Wow, you* have* been in Florida for the last twenty years.
(Looks at pic.)
OK, a smooth one like that does take me back.
Actually, come to think of it, when I went to law school in Baltimore, 1989-92, I did see an Afro. Once. Lots and lots of black people, but only one Afro.
I suppose so. But, it looks like Thompson won’t concede.