NY-AD35: Turnout low ahead of special election to fill Mamdani's old seat
Turnout in the special election to fill the Assembly seat vacated by Mayor Zohran Mamdani was already expected to be low – and that was before the city was smacked with a snow-filled cold snap that only made it less likely people would trudge their way to the polls.
Through early voting, 2,805 locals had voted early in the race, about 400 votes cast each day on average. That’s just a small fraction of the nearly 122,000 people of voting age who live in the 36th Assembly District, which includes most of Astoria, and parts of Long Island City and Elmhurst, and is one of the most vote-rich districts in the city.
Two days of early voting were cancelled due to the storm, giving residents even fewer opportunities to vote before election day on Tuesday. While Governor Kathy Hochul added voting hours to make up for the cancellations, the snow and freezing temperatures certainly didn’t help to drive turnout in the local special election that was already unlikely to churn out the masses.
Despite the weather, the three candidates, Diana Moreno, Rana Abdelhamid and Mary Jobaida made their final pitches to voters about why they should be the woman to fill Mamdani’s shoes – but they’ve had to do most of their home-stretch campaigning in snow boots.
https://queenseagle.com/all/2026/2/2/turnout-low-ahead-of-special-election-to-fill-mamdanis-old-seat