Election Day: 690,526 New Yorkers already voted early. What's on the ballot, and which charter questions would change the Council's powers

New Yorkers are voting today, Tuesday, Nov. 3. Polls are open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m., according to the Board of Elections, which has a poll site lookup. About 163,518 voters had checked in during the first three hours, PoliticsNY reported, citing Board of Elections data.

Voters who still have a mail ballot can drop it off at their county Board of Elections office or any open poll site today, Gothamist reported. A mailed ballot counts if it arrives by Election Day, or within a week with an Election Day postmark, but the Postal Service does not always postmark mail the day it is received.

Why it matters to residents: the ballot includes races for governor, attorney general, state comptroller, Congress and the state Legislature, plus five proposed changes to the City Charter that every city voter will see on the back of the ballot. No regularly scheduled City Council races are on the ballot; members elected in 2025 serve four-year terms. Results tonight will be unofficial, and we won't report outcomes until they are counted.

The early vote

Early voting ended Sunday with 690,526 check-ins over nine days, according to the Board of Elections' unofficial count: 219,536 in Brooklyn, 188,434 in Manhattan, 162,914 in Queens, 67,630 in the Bronx and 52,012 on Staten Island. Sunday was the busiest day, with 117,740 voters. The figures count people who checked in, not ballots counted.

That was about 6% below last year's early vote in the mayoral race, mostly because about 15,000 fewer voters ages 18 to 24 turned out, according to a Gothamist analysis. Some of the largest increases over 2025 came in majority-Black Assembly districts: about 60% in the 58th, covering East Flatbush, Canarsie and Brownsville; more than 47% in the 29th in southeast Queens; and about 40% in the neighboring 31st. Turnout among voters 55 and older rose 14%. Compared with the last governor's race, in 2022, the city's early vote rose from about 432,600 to 690,000, Gothamist reported.

We reported 572,786 check-ins through Saturday and 400,137 through Thursday.

The five questions, and the Council

The Council does not vote on charter questions; a simple majority of voters decides each one. Mayor Zohran Mamdani's Commission on Government Efficiency drafted all five. Here is what each would do, drawing on amNY's guide:

• Question 1, public space permits, would combine the sidewalk and roadway dining applications, drop the mandatory public hearing, and end the Council's power to disapprove individual sidewalk cafe applications. Community boards, borough presidents and the local Council member would generally still get at least 15 days' notice to comment. It would take effect March 1, 2027.
• Question 2, city contracting, would let the Procurement Policy Board tailor paperwork rules and require it to meet at least every three months.
• Question 3, street projects and city property, would speed reviews of street safety projects, shorten land-use review for certain small city-owned lots, and give the City Planning Commission, not the Council, the final decision on some of those reviews. It would also reduce Council oversight of some property sales and office leases.
• Question 4, building permits, would create a central construction permit hub.
• Question 5, the rainy day fund, would set a reserve target of at least 12% of the prior year's tax revenue and require the mayor to certify a compelling need before withdrawing more than half the fund in a year.

What our records add

The Council uses the cafe power Question 1 would end. This year the full Council voted on seven sidewalk cafe applications, approving six and rejecting one. On Sept. 24 it voted 46-0 to disapprove a cafe in Corona, Queens. Members also used "call-ups" at least seven times to pull a Transportation Department cafe approval in for Council review, such as M 0091-2026, from Shanel Thomas-Henry. Our earlier guide has the full record, and our story on the Comptroller's dining permit audit covers how long applicants have waited.

Council leaders raised concerns about the process. A spokesperson for Speaker Julie Menin told THE CITY in July that the Council was "concerned by the speed and process" behind the proposals.

The rainy day fund was part of this year's budget debate. Our Question 5 story covers what the Finance chair and the Speaker said about reserves on the record.

What's next

The Board of Elections certifies results after counting absentee, military and affidavit ballots. Any approved charter change takes effect on its own schedule, such as March 1, 2027, for Question 1. The Council's next stated meeting is Nov. 12.