Early voting underway in New York primary elections
NEW YORK CITY (WABC) -- More than 17,000 people have already cast early votes in New York City.
The primary will be the first step to determine whether Governor Kathy Hochul keeps her job.
In the Democratic gubernatorial primary, Hochul is trying to fend off challenges from U.S. Rep. Tom Suozzi and New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams.
On the Republican side, four candidates are competing for the nomination: U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin, former Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino, businessman Harry Wilson, and Andrew Giuliani, the son of New York City's former mayor Rudy Giuliani.
Races for lieutenant governor, attorney general, comptroller, and U.S. Senate are also included.
Select polling places are open for early votes across the state through June 26.
Primary day is June 28.
Democrats have an outsized voter registration edge in New York, but Republicans are hoping to win over suburban and rural voters by blaming Democrats for crime and sluggish economic gains outside of New York City.
New Yorkers can again choose to vote by absentee ballot rather than face the risk of catching COVID-19 at polling sites through the rest of 2022.
New York will hold another primary Aug. 23 for state Senate and U.S. House races. The primary election for those offices was delayed because of a legal fight over Democrats' efforts to gerrymander new political district maps.
Those maps were ultimately thrown out by courts, which declared that they had been enacted improperly, and redrawn under a judge's supervision.
The state chapter of the League of Women Voters and a small group of Democrats and Republicans, sued by mid-May to delay the state Assembly primary. But their legal efforts floundered, with judges in several rulings saying it's simply too late to delay the June primary.
The office of the state attorney general has opened its election protection hotline to help voters who encounter issues: 866-390-2992.
(Some information from the Associated Press)
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