NYC NOW - Midday News: Early Voting Wraps in NYC , SNAP Delays Continue, and NYC’s Mayoral Race Enters Final Stretch

Episode Date: November 3, 2025

Polls are closed today after a nine-day stretch of early voting. Five times as many voters cast ballots this year compared to four years ago. Polls reopen tomorrow at 6 a.m. Meanwhile, the federal government shutdown is delaying food assistance for residents who rely on SNAP benefits. Officials in New Jersey say the impact may soon be felt across the state. Plus, Election Day is tomorrow and New Yorkers will elect a new mayor. Democrat Zohran Mamdani is running against independent Andrew Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa. WNYC’s Elizabeth Kim joins us live from City Hall to talk about the final stretch of the race.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. It's Monday, November 3rd. Here's the midday news from Michael Hill. Polls are closed now after record-breaking nine-day stretch of early voting in New York City, five times as many voters cast ballots this year compared to four years ago. Lori Hutchinson was among the voters waiting more than half an hour to cast a ballot at the Flatbush, YMCA. yesterday. The mayor of New York City is also a leader amongst mayors across the country. People are looking at our policies and how we choose to take care of this very complex society

in much less complex communities. The 56-year-old Department of Education employee declined to say who was getting her vote. She was waiting in line with her husband and was supporting Mom Dani. Polls re-opened tomorrow morning at 6 o'clock. And check out our voter guide at our news site, Gothamus and stay with Deputy WNYC for all our coverage of the elections. It's day 34, the federal government shutdown and people in our region already are feeling a delay in food assistance. SNAP benefits help feed more than 40 million Americans, but the program is now in limbo. Mark Ding Lawson is the executive director of the New Jersey Office of the Food Security Advocate. He says the impact may be felt across the state. It's not in one centralized

location. We're looking northwest, south, east. There are going to be hot spots for us where we predict, according to the data, there's going to be a rise in need. New Jersey, Governor Phil Murphy has declared a state of emergency, which triggers a coordinated statewide response to help vulnerable residents in New York, Governor Hocla, Mayor Adams have released tens of millions of dollars to help fill the gaps. 57 and cloudy slim chance of late afternoon rain today, mostly cloudy, near 60 with a calm wind. Stay close. There's more after the break. Election day is tomorrow. New Yorkers will elect a new mayor. Democratic candidate. Zeran

Mamdani is running against independent Andrew Cuomo and Republican Curtis Lewa. The New York City Board of Election says already some 735,000 New Yorkers have voted early. W.N.C's Elizabeth Kim joins us now. She's live at City Hall to talk about the final stretch of this race. Zeranam Dani just delivered a closing message in front of City Hall. Tell us, what did he say? This was a speech that was very reminiscent of one that he gave on primary day. Now, he's the frontrunner because his message about affordability has really resonated with New Yorkers. And this morning, he repeated some of the promises that got him to this point.

Here's some of what he said. Let them feel the light of City Hall. when their late night bus home is faster and freer and safer to. Let them feel the light of City Hall when the clock strikes midnight to mark the first day of a new month. And the rent payment that looms doesn't make them feel a pit in their stomach. Let them feel the light of a city hall when a baby's cries wake them in the middle of the night. And they know that they have high quality child care waiting for them in the morning. So there you hear him talking about three of his signature proposals.

free buses, freezing the rent on rent-stabilized apartments, and universal child care. Now, Michael, it's worth noting that this morning speech is really a display of how this race has represented a generational shift. You know, at 34 years old, Mamdani has been criss-crossing the city. Prior to making that speech, he walked across the Brooklyn Bridge over the weekend. He was at the halfway point of the marathon, and he hit some clubs. He was at a Knicks game last night. You know, he's, he's definitely sticking to his message, but he definitely has the energy of a 34-year-old.

Where were Andrew Cuomo and Curtis Leewall campaigning? How are they courting voters in these last few days, last few hours? So Andrew Cuomo has been focusing on conservative and Republican voters. Now, Andrew Cuomo, of course, it is a Democrat. He and his father is synonymous with that party in New York State politics, but he's, like you said at the top, he's running as an independent. His main argument is that Mamdani is too inexperienced and radical to run the city. And he's been doing the rounds on Fox News and conservative radio last Friday. He hits Staten Island, which is really Curtis Slewa country.

It shows you that he really does need Republicans to win. But he's also been focused on getting out black voters. And over the weekend, he was in Southeast Queens with Mayor Eric Adams and former governor David Patterson, where he was portraying the election as a referendum over the future of the Democratic Party. Here's what he said. The Democratic Party is having a civil war. You don't hear it. You don't see it, but it's going on in this election.

And there's two sides that are fighting. you have a far left extremist group that are called themselves socialists. Socialists sounds nice utopia. Socialism hasn't worked anyway. Now, Curtis Slewa is polling in a distant third place, but he's been very active on the campaign trail. And he has really honed his message as a Republican person. populist. Here's what's Lee was said in Staten Island over the weekend. This is an election that will not be determined by billionaires, influences, or insiders.

But you, the people, the blue-collar working class that are not represented, not by Zoron, not by Andrew and his influences and billionaire friends, but by the son of blue-collar working-class parents like all of you. Now, what's notable about Sliwa's remarks is that you can see that even in the final stretch, he is not backing down from criticizing Cuomo. And he could very well be a spoiler in this race, because as we've said, Michael, Cuomo needs some Republican voters to win. We've seen several polls come out that have widely different margins between Mamdani and

Cuomo. Would you break them down, Liz? Yes. So all the polls are showing Mamdani as winning, but the margins have been all over the map. An Atlas poll that dropped over the weekend showed Mamdani with a seven point lead over Cuomo. That's the narrowest margin we've seen so far between these two candidates in the general election. There was a Quinn Piak poll last week that showed Cuomo within 10 points, also suggesting that Cuomo has momentum. And then there was an Emerson poll that showed Mamdani with a 26 point lead. And that's actually 11 points more than an Emerson poll had in September.

And so why the disparity? Well, polling depends on a lot of factors. And it's better to look at polling as a snapshot. It's a snapshot of a particular time period. It's also a snapshot of a particular group. It depends on who the pollster is. talking to. It also depends on the number of people they're talking to. So if you remember, most of the polls right before the primary also mis- underestimated the outcome. They all had Cuomo

winning. Now, Emerson came the closest. That poll showed Mamdani and Cuomo neck in the first round of ranked choice, and then Mamdani overtaking Cuomo in the end. There are some ballot proposals that would, Go ahead, Michael, sorry. There are some ballot proposals that would fast track the approval of housing by reducing the city council's input on land use decisions. Now, one of Mondani's core issues is affordable housing, but he declined during the debate, I recall, to take a position. Has he waited yet? No, Michael, and he was asked, you know, just an hour ago, you know, where are you on the ballot proposals? And he declined to answer.

You know, it's important to note that anyone in this city who votes, including Mamdani himself, will be turning over their ballot and being asked to weigh in on these proposals. And Mamdani's opponents have both already offered their positions. Cuomo has said he is in favor. Sliwa is against. Now, the theory on why Mamdani is holding back is he just doesn't want to take a position that might offend a portion of his base. There are pro-housing folks, you know, so-called Yembees, who are strongly in support of these housing proposals.

But these proposals are opposed by the city council and also unions, two groups that Mamdani will need to govern effectively. Liz, we have 20 seconds left. Endorsements, last minute endorsements played a factor in this race? You know, I don't think any of these are going to be considered game-changing endorsements. former mayor Michael Bloomberg did endorse Cuomo again after endorsing him in the primary. Former Governor David Patterson, you know, he had switched from Cuomo to Adams and now he's back to Cuomo.

House leader, Hakeem Jeffries, he did endorse the Friday before early voting began. Liz, I'm afraid we're going to have to leave it there. That's WNIC's Liz Kim at City Hall, Liz. Thank you. Be sure to check out our voter guide on our news site, Gothamus, and stay with WNMYM. for all our coverage. Thank you, Michael. Thanks for listening.

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