Younger New Yorkers are starting to make their mark at the ballot box — turning out at a higher clip over the past few days of early voting in the highly-watched mayoral race.
New Yorkers under 50 years old, who are more likely to pick 34-year-old Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani, have been closing the gap each day throughout the week with older voters, a bloc that has traditionally made up a majority of poll-goers.
The trend could spell bad news for Andrew Cuomo, who has been counting on the older vote to help boost him to an upset victory over the young socialist, with surrogates touting the near 60% of turnout in that age group over the weekend as a boon for the ex-governor.
The 50-plus crowd kicked the week off strong, accounting for more than 62% of the votes cast on Monday, only to see that lead dwindle to 57% and 54% over each of the next two days.
The younger voters made a run on Thursday, nearly overtaking the Baby Boomers at the polls, 49-51.
The nine-day period of early voting ends Saturday, with Election Day on Nov. 4, and the number of New Yorkers turning out is set to be historic.
Figures have already far surpassed the total number of ballots cast in that entire early voting period for the Democratic primary — with the Board of Elections reporting nearly 400,000 check-ins at voting locations around the city as of Thursday evening.
During the primary, early voters only accounted for 284,000 of the nearly 1.1 million ballots cast.
The milestone came despite a more paltry number of voters on Thursday, likely due to the rain.
A mere 26,000 people headed to the polls Thursday, with the younger class gaining almost a percentage point on the older voters.
Overall, voters above 50 accounted for just over 57% of the turnout in the early voting period so far.
During the primary, Mamdani soared to victory with a push from younger voters, making it a near 50-50 split.
Some insiders were unfazed by the shifting trend, saying the recent youth figures haven’t been enough to move the needle.
“That’s was clearly a reaction to the weekend,” one insider close the Cuomo camp said of the first two days of early voting being dominated by older ballot-casters.
“The trends are still showing what they did earlier in the week.”
If the voting trends are similar to the primary election in June, turnout could reach above 2 million.
The last time a general election saw that many voters hit the ballot boxes was back in 1969, which was also the last time three viable candidates vied for City Hall.
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