New Yorkers vote after fierce race for new mayor

A former police officer leads the polls, but a new voting system makes the outcome hard to predict

New Yorkers went to the polls on Tuesday for the final day of voting on who will replace Bill de Blasio as the next mayor of America’s most populous city.

Primary elections were held for Democrats and Republicans, though the winner of the Democratic contest is likely to win the November 2 mayoral vote in the left-leaning city.

During an unusually fierce campaign, candidates debated New York City’s rising crime rates, homelessness and the best way to revive the economy of a city ravaged by the coronavirus pandemic.

Andrew Yang, a technology entrepreneur who gained national fame as a candidate in last year’s presidential race, initially led the Democratic field, but polls have narrowed in recent weeks.

Other Democratic front-runners include Eric Adams, borough president of Brooklyn and a retired police officer, Kathryn Garcia, a former sanitation commissioner for the city, and Mr de Blasio’s former counsel, Maya Wiley.

An Ipsos survey released on Monday before the primary showed Mr Adams led as the first choice for 28 per cent of New York Democrats, trailed by Mr Yang (20 per cent), Ms Garcia (13 per cent) and Ms Wiley (13 per cent).

Mr Adams entered politics after a long career as a New York police officer.

He wants to be the city’s second black mayor after David Dinkins, who served in the early 1990s. Racial justice is a top issue for progressives.

“I grew up poor, I was arrested, I have a learning disability – and I’m running to be the next mayor of the greatest city in the world,” Mr Adams said on social media on Tuesday.

“Ours is a New York story.”

The polls suggest that centrists such as Mr Adams and Mr Yang lead the Democratic field, while progressives are faring poorly at a time that President Joe Biden has sought a middle ground in US politics.

Still, polls for primary votes are often unreliable, and the introduction of a new voting system has added another level of uncertainty to the outcome.

For the first time, the election will feature ranked-choice voting, in which voters can name their top five preferred candidates.

Under the system, voters select up to five candidates in order of preference and the lowest performers are eliminated in a series of computerised rounds of vote tallying until only two candidates remain.

With no presidential or congressional races at stake, turnout was expected to be much lower than for November’s presidential vote.

Still, thanks to the new voting system and the slow counting of absentee ballots, New Yorkers are not likely to learn the results until July.

In a separate race, several Democrats are running to replace Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, who has led a probe into former president Donald Trump’s business dealings.