The New York City Voter Assistance Advisory Committee recently released their full report on 2014 election turnouts. Out of all registered voters in the five boroughs, only 25% of them bothered to hit the polls last year.
For those of you who don’t want to bother with reports and math, we’re here to break it down for you:
- Population of New York City: close to 9 million.
- People who are registered to vote: less than half of that.
- People who actually showed up to vote: a quarter of that.
And this was the best we were able to do in major November election!!! I mean, come on. They’ve made the voting process simpler and less confusing, they give out free stickers, they put a polling place directly across from the 7-11 so you have a good excuse to go out of your way to get a Slurpee. What more do you need, people!!!
No data was given for special elections, which historically have even lower turnouts, but consider this: over 29,000 people voted in our City Council district in November 2001, and over 25,000 voted in the 2005 election. But only 11,000 voted in the February 2003 special election to replace now-Senator Marty Golden. What’s up with that?
The maps relating to Bay Ridge turnout are below. Note that it’s hard to get an accurate percentage of neighborhood voters as this area is so heavily gerrymandered, but regardless of that fact, and regardless of the fact that we’re not the absolute worst in this report, we still really, really suck at voting.
NY Congressional District 11: Won by Michael Grimm (D)
NYS Assembly District 64: Nicole Malliotakas (R)
NYS Assembly District 46: Alec Brook-Krasny (D) 
NYS Senate: Martin J Golden (R) 
Today you have the opportunity to replace our convicted felon congressman with a new one that hopefully won’t commit any major crimes over the next two years. Check out our handy dandy election overview, which wil tell you a bit more about the candidates and what they stand for. Click here to find your polling place, and make sure you don’t become one of the 75% of people who voluntarily have no say in how things work.
Remember, if you don’t vote, you are not allowed to complain. And we’re also allowed to blame you the next time The Daily Show comes down this way to mock our poor decision making skills. Twice.