NYC elections under way, city could elect second black mayor

When the polls close in today's New York City mayoral election, the city could have its second black mayor.

According to polls, Democratic candidate Eric Adams is far ahead of his Republican challenger Curtis Sliwa and should easily win the election.

Adams is currently Brooklyn Borough President, a post he will relinquish if he wins tonight.

Adams, a former NYPD police officer and long-time public servant, appears to have the support of a majority of city voters, if the polls are to be believed.

Should he win, Adams will inherit a series of issues, including following through on the current vaccine mandate by Mayor Bill de Blasio and an uptick in crime.

The defunding of the NYPD is also another problem that the incoming mayor will have to deal with as well as criminal justice reform.

Adams has refused to weigh in on the vaccine mandate, which took effect Sunday night and requires that all municipal workers, including police, firefighters, teachers and sanitation workers, must be vaccinated with at least one doze to continue working.

Adams has held a substantial money lead over his Republican challenger and is beating him in public opinion polls 61 percent to 25 percent.

The Democratic candidate, since winning the democratic primary last spring, has focused his attention on reducing crime and improving the quality of life for all New York City residents.

Early voting was held from October 23 and ended Sunday night.

There are no reports as to which candidate is leading in the early voting although many political pundits believe that the voter turn-out will not be as high as expected.

The Democratic party has a seven to one voter advantage over the Republican party in New York City.

Jobs, prosperity, crime, justice reform and vaccine mandates are some of the issues that the candidates campaigned on across the five boroughs of Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Bronx and Staten Island.

While the main focus is on the mayoral race, there are several other races where voters will be choosing new leaders.

These include five borough presidents, a majority of the city council, a city comptroller and public advocate.

Whereas voters had to do rank choice voting in the primary, this does not hold true for today’s election.

The NYC board of elections pointed out that three in 10 voters participated in the primary and this figure is expected to hold true for today’s election.

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